If every party were to contest the [Lok Sabha] election on its own, the AIADMK too would follow suit, Deputy Chief Minister and party co-ordinator O. Panneerselvam told the Assembly on Wednesday.
He was responding to a remark by Congress Legislature Party leader K.R. Ramasamy during a debate on the State budget, on whether the ruling party would face the polls on its own. He also told Mr. Ramasamy that the Congress party had managed, over the years, only by “riding piggyback on the shoulders” of either of the Dravidian parties — the DMK or the AIADMK.
When the Congress leader sought to know the probable date of the elections to local bodies, Local Administration Minister S.P. Velumani assured him that the elections would be held, as preliminary work such as territorial delimitation of wards of local bodies, which had not been done for 22 years, had just been carried out.
Mr. Ramasamy sought to blame the delay in holding the byelection to the Tiruvarur assembly constituency on a letter written by Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan in October to the Election Commission. But, Mr. Palaniswami explained that the concern expressed by the government over the rainy season was validated with all parties, including the DMK, approaching the Commission for postponing the bypoll.
This was disputed by Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin, who said that his party’s objection was to holding the byelection for Tiruvarur alone, leaving out 18 other constituencies.
Pointing out that byelections to the remaining seats were not being held in view of litigation, Mr. Palaniswami said that the AIADMK was ready to face the bypolls, if notified by the EC.
