"Deploy Reserve Police Force to ensure violence-free polls"

April 12, 2011 01:34 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 02:56 am IST - Chennai

AIADMK chief  Jayalalithaa during an election campaign recently.

AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa during an election campaign recently.

AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Tuesday demanded the deployment of Reserve Police Force across the State to ensure violence-free elections.

In a statement, she said that the Election Commission, Chief Electoral Officer and the Police Department should take into account the “violence unleashed by the DMK” in the past few days, and take steps to prevent untoward incidents on election day.

She alleged that fearing defeat, the Chief Minister was misusing the official machinery besides resorting to methods of bribing voters and targeting the members of the Opposition party, “to subvert democracy.”

Ms. Jayalalithaa said that in Madathukulam constituency AIADMK candidate C. Shanmugavelu was attacked the ruling party workers when he tried to prevent them from distributing money to voters.

A local leader of the DMDK was murdered for questioning the activities of the ruling party activists in violation of election rules. In a separate statement, she alleged that the DMK was planning to rig the polls with the help of bureaucrats and police officers. “The Election Commission should take stringent action against these officials. If there is violence on election day, the intelligence officials of the Centre and the State government will be held responsible.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.