In the last 50 years, elections to the Legislative Assembly were held 11 times in Tamil Nadu and the AIADMK had remained in power for 31 years winning seven times, said MLA and former minister R.B. Udhaya Kumar here on Friday.
Speaking at a party workers’ preparatory meeting held in Tirumangalam in Madurai district to celebrate the golden jubilee of the AIADMK on October 17, he said that the recent poll outcome of the rural local body had been fudged by the ruling party. When the AIADMK conducted Legislative Assembly polls on a single day, what prompted the State Election Commission to hold the rural local body elections in two phases for nine districts, he questioned.
Alleging that the DMK forced the authorities to hold the elections in two phases so that it could manipulate the votes accordingly, he charged. He said despite giving a long list of names to be deleted in the voters list in Thirumangalam, the authorities had neglected it.
"Many persons who had died, the names were not deleted. Similarly, those who were away serving in different regiments in the Indian Defence could not cast their votes, but the DMK workers had exercised it illegally," he claimed.
Hence, Mr. Udhaya Kumar said that the party workers' need not get demoralised with the poll outcome as it was nothing but a gimmick played by the DMK. The people were always with the AIADMK.
"When the AIADMK lost in 1996, the DMK had then written us off...our Amma (Jayalalithaa) had bounced back in 2001," he recalled and appealed to the workers to join the year long celebrations of the party's golden jubilee from October 17.
