Chennai: Late M Karunanidhi's constituency Thiruvarur's bypoll, which was initially scheduled for January 28, has now been postponed. The Election Commission has cancelled the January 3 notification keeping in account the ongoing rehabilitation work in the constituency due to Cyclone Gaja.
“Taking note of the fact that necessary relief and rehabilitation measures in the area affected by Cyclone ‘Gaja’ are required to be undertaken by the State Government of Tamil Nadu and the district administration of Thiruvarur, which has to conduct the said bye-election continues to be pre-occupied with the relief and rehabilitation works, the Commission is of the considered view that the process of conduct of bye-election from Thiruvarur Assembly Constituency of Tamil Nadu cannot be continued at present,” statement of the Election Commission of India.
This comes after the District Administration of Thiruvarur had a meeting with political parties on Saturday to submit a report to the Tamil Nadu Election Commission with regard to the bypoll. Rajya Sabha Member D Raja had filed a petition before the Election Commission on Friday and sought a postponement of the bypoll following which EC had asked for a report from the state elections department.
TTV Dinakaran and DMK had already announced the candidate and the AIADMK was buying time to announce the candidate.
Political Observers say regional and national parties were averse to a bypoll ahead of Lok Sabha elections. N Sathiya Moorthy, political analyst said, “Apart from the truth of Gaja reconstruction work, and possible voter apathy/anger against the political class, no party wants a micro-mini referendum ahead of LS polls. This is different from the 'mini-referendum' due in 20 Assembly constituencies, to delay which they also cannot explain away with an all-acceptable reason."
"In Tiruvarur, DMK has to win and win big in Karunanidhi's native place and last constituency. Not only can ruling AIADMK afford to lose, they need to render rebel AMMK irrelevant. For AMMK, they need an incremental victory after R K Nagar, but nothing less than pushing AIADMK to the third position, even if they lose," Moorthy added.
As ruling party at the Centre, BJP cannot afford to lose security deposit in Tiruvarur ahead of LS polls, though no one expects the party do any better. It can embarrass the national leadership too. Thankfully, Congress can avoid the embarrassment, as it is the traditional seat of the DMK ally for LS polls.”
However, both the AIADMK and the DMK maintain that they are not scared of elections and were prepared for the bypoll.
Analysts add the Election Commission has erred in this regard. RK Radhakrishnan, Associate Editor, Frontline said: “It is not a question of which party wants a bypolls or not. The Indian Election Commission, from the time of Seshan, has not gone by the demands of political parties when it comes to the conduct of an election. The new CEC has erred in not conducting due diligence before the Commission announced the poll. This is farcical, and the EC, by not taking into consideration the most basic facts that exist in Thiruvarur, has reduced itself to a joke. The EC has to fix responsibility — though the buck stops with the CEC — and dismiss those responsible for fixing the date of the bypolls.”
Sumanth Raman, a political observer said: "They announced the date only after the rehabilitation work had already started. On what basis can they say that they didn't know about this. CS had written a letter on December 3. So did they overrule the State Government and then decide to go ahead and if they overruled it, what made them change their mind now. There is no logic or rationale in this decision. This is an avoidable controversy and EC owes an answer.”
Comments
0 comment