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DMK writes to EC, asks it to restrain ruling party from using CM’s photo for welfare schemes
AIADMK’s coordinator Palaniswami on December 19 while launching his campaign as the chief ministerial candidate for the 2021 assembly elections announced a hamper for Pongal, a multi-day harvest festival (from January 14-17 in 2021) in Tamil Nadu to 2.6 crore people holding ration cards.
Tamil Nadu’s opposition party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday urged the Election Commission to ensure that the Pongal sop announced by chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami reaches people via the Tamil Nadu government and not from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party as it would affect the ‘level playing field’.
AIADMK’s coordinator Palaniswami on December 19 while launching his campaign as the chief ministerial candidate for the 2021 assembly elections announced a hamper for Pongal, a multi-day harvest festival (from January 14-17 in 2021) in Tamil Nadu to 2.6 crore people holding ration cards. They will receive Rs 2,500 in cash along with raw rice, cashew, sugar, grapes, cardamom, sugarcane and a cloth bag from the public distribution system through a token procedure. The sop would be rolled out from January 4.
“Wherever and whenever it is possible, the party in power abuses and misuses their power for their personal gain and to influence the voters,” DMK’s organisation secretary RS Bharathi wrote in his letter to the state and central officers of the Election Commission of India. He added that the ‘Pongal gift cash’ was being disbursed from the government’s fund and not from the fund of the ruling party but, “the manner and the pattern, in which the tokens are being issued to the public show, as if the ‘Pongal Gift’ is being given by the ruling AIADMK Party, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and Ministers of respective area”.
He said that the DMK was not opposed to the scheme as it believes it is necessary in a welfare state to support people owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and those affected by the cyclones. The DMK had demanded that Rs 5,000 be paid to each family, he said.
DMK president M K Stalin also said in a statement that the chief minister cannot use AIADMK cadre to distribute tokens for a government scheme and it should be done through ration shop employees.
“Though the Model Code of Conduct is yet to be enforced,” the DMK’s complaint letter said, adding that it was improper for the AIADMK government to use its leaders’ identities. “It would affect the level playing field, which is the basic concept of fair election to ensure democracy.”
CM Palaniswami on Tuesday will present the AIADMK government’s ‘report card’ listing their achievements in the past ten years since they have been in power.
