All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam president Vijayakant on Saturday denied the complaint of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam that they had made derogatory and objectionable remarks on the personal life of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi and his family members.
Replying to the show-cause notice issued to them by the Election Commission, the two leaders, in their somewhat identical replies sent individually, said those who were in public life should be ready to come under the scanner for their acts. Their criticism of Mr. Karunanidhi was confined to his political life, policies and programmes and under no circumstance had they (Ms. Jayalalithaa and Mr. Vijayakant) made any remarks about his personal life, they claimed.
Sources said the full Commission — Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi and Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma — will meet in a day or two and decide on their replies.
Originally, the two leaders were asked to send in their replies by 5 p.m. on Thursday. But Ms. Jayalalithaa sought two days to give her reply, while Mr. Vijayakant asked for 20 days. The Commission rejected Mr. Vijayakant's plea and granted both of them 48 hours to send replies (by 5 p.m. on Saturday).
The DMK made the complaint on April 1. The petition, backed by copies of newspaper reports, was given by party election committee members Pon Muthuramalingam and K.S. Radhakrishnan. The party charged that both actor-turned-politicians made “seriously and highly objectionable allegations” against Mr. Karunanidhi and his family during their poll campaign in different places of Tamil Nadu.
The Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are scheduled for April 13.
