The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has strongly denied that she made any specific promise of providing any of the requirements of voters in the Yercaud Assembly constituency, which would go to the by-poll on Wednesday.
In her response to the Election Commission’s notice issued to her on Monday, Ms. Jayalalithaa, whose reply on the same day was made public on Tuesday, said there was no violation of the model code of conduct as she had made a “general statement” that whatever was required for the uplift of the people would be provided.
Pointing out that the Commission’s notice did not mention the name of the complainant, Ms. Jayalalithaa, in her reply to Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath, said from the contents of the complaint as mentioned in the notice, it was presumed that the complaint had been made by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, an adversary and political rival of her party.
Giving a gist of her speech made in Tamil in her visit to Yercaud on November 28, the AIADMK leader said she had referred to various development schemes, already implemented and under implementation in the State, after she assumed charge as Chief Minister in May 2011. She also presented an account of the status of various development schemes in Yercaud.
“I emphatically deny that my speech was in the nature of alluding to different social and infrastructure requirements such as opening of new Health Centres etc.” She had not announced any financial grant in any form and did not make any promise of construction of roads and provision of drinking water facilities to attract the model code.
Contending that the Commission’s notice proceeded on the basis of conjunctive reference to the requirements of Yercaud and assurance to meeting development requirements of the area, Ms. Jayalalithaa asserted that there was no basis for coming to such a conclusion. Making the conjunctive reference was based on “mere surmise and suspicion and which is inadmissible in law, more so in the case of interpreting the Model Code of Conduct.” She added that her Tamil speech had not been correctly reflected in the English translation. Requesting the CEC to drop the proposed action, Ms Jayalalithaa also brought to his notice that her name had been wrongly spelt in the notice.
