Sasikala Pushpa to meet EC seeking disqualification of Dinakaran, Sasikala Natarajan from contesting

VK Sasikala. (PIC/PTI)

New Delhi: Ever since the ex-CM of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha expired, political conditions in the state are full of hiccups.  On Tuesday, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi will be meeting Member of Parliament (MP) Rajya Sabha Sasikala Pushpa who is seeking the disqualification of deputy general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) TTV Dinakaran and interim General Secretary of AIADMK Natarajan from contesting any polls. Pushpa is going to submit a memorandum seeking disqualification of Dinakaran and Sasikala Natarajan from contesting in any polls and declare their occupancy in AIADMK as office bearers as null and void. After meeting the poll body she will later meet the media outside ECI office. The RK Nagar by-polls were earlier scheduled to be held on Wednesday but got cancelled after Income Tax raids in Chennai found that money was distributed to the voters. The Election Commission said that the by-elections shall be held by the poll panel in due course when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors gets removed with the passage of time and the atmosphere in the constituency becomes conducive to the holding of free and fair election. The by-elections in R.K. Nagar became necessary after the death of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who represented it for two terms. On Friday, the Income Tax officials raided several premises belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and his relatives in Chennai and other districts in the wake of complaints that he was involved in cash distribution to the voters in the R.K. Nagar constituency ahead of the April 12 by-polls. The Income Tax (IT) authorities have issued summons to Vijayabaskar to appear before them today in connection with the raid on his premises on Friday. The IT department also conducted searches on the premises of actor and All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader R. Sarathkumar, former AIADMK legislator Chitlapakkam Rajendran and vice-chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University S. Geethalakshmi. Meanwhile, the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit said the ruling AIADMK (Amma) has apprehensions over its survival in the state, given the split in the party and various crisis faced by the government. "They are unnecessarily targeting the BJP and me," BJP state President Tamilisai Soundararajan said reacting to the AIADMK (Amma) faction's chief TTV Dinakaran's remark blaming her party BJP, the DMK, the IT Department and the Election Commission and former TN CM O Panneerselvam for working as a "coalition" against his party. The reason for it, she said, was the ruling party's fears over the survival of the government and the party in Tamil Nadu. In case of any eventuality "they are seeing if they can blame our party or the Centre," she told PTI. "The blame is on them. To hide it, they are accusing our party and the poll panel EC," she said. Stating that the ruling party in Tamil Nadu was facing several crisis like those of split in the party and freezing of its poll symbol by the EC, she said the AIADMK-Amma regime was confronted with issues of alleged corruption as well. She asserted that neither her party nor the Centre has anything to do with the Election Commission's decision to cancel the RK Nagar assembly bypoll. Rubbishing Dinakaran's claims, she said the Income Tax raids were purely a legal action based on the inputs they had got and the EC's decision to cancel the bypoll was its considered view given the prevailing vitiated atmosphere. "I welcome the EC decision. I have already said that the EC should consider it if a free and fair poll could not be guaranteed," she told PTI adding distributing money to voters eroded the level playing field among parties. (With inputs from agencies)