MK Stalin's wife has been accused of paying women's self-help groups to canvass for him.
Top leaders of the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), including MK Stalin and his son Udayanidhi Stalin, have been bribing voters in five constituencies of Tamil Nadu and must be disqualified for this, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (AIADMK) has said in a complaint to the poll panel today. The party has also sought the cancellation of elections in these five constituencies. Tamil Nadu is scheduled vote in a new government tomorrow.
Apart from the DMK chief and his son, the complaint also seeks the disqualification of EV Velu, KN Nehru, and Durai Murugan. The five constituencies where it wants the polls stopped are Kolathur, Katpadi, Chepauk-Triplicane, Tiruchirapalli, and Tiruvannamalai.
While Mr Stalin is contesting from Kolathur, Udhayanidhi Stalin is the party's candidate in Chepauk. DMK General Secretary Durai Murugan is fighting the polls from Katpadi, Mr Nehru from Tiruchirapalli, and Mr Velu from Tiruvannamalai.
The denied the allegations. "The AIADMK is scared of a landslide victory by the DMK. That's why they have targeted our star leaders," party spokesperson Dr Kanimozhi Somu told NDTV.
In his multiple letters to the poll panel today, RM Babu Murugavel, the AIADMK's advocates' wing joint secretary, wrote that affiliates and associates of Mr Stalin had been distributing a sum of Rs 5,000 each to voters "surreptitiously from April 2".
"The wife of the No. 13 Kolathur Assembly Constituency candidate Mr MK Stalin, Mrs Durga Stalin, who is permanently stayed there and organise all-women self-help groups and paid a sum of Rs 10,000 to each group to act, canvas, cost, their votes in her husband's favour," Mr Murugavel wrote in one of his letters.
He also alleged that Mr Stalin and his associates paid the voters via G-Pay, and asked the Election Commission to "take stringent action".
The AIADMK member has written other such letters, too, referring to such alleged malpractices by the other five DMK candidates.
Following the recent raids at the home of Mr Stalin's daughter and a few others, income-tax authorities had claimed to have found "incriminating evidence of tax evasion" though only Rs 1.34 lakh cash was found.
Summarising poll-related seizures so far in the southern state, the state Elections CEO today said, "We have made Rs 428 crore worth poll-related seizures in Tamil Nadu. Cash seizures alone account for Rs 225.5 crore."