Cash-for-votes main feature of recent by-polls: CPI (M)

CHENNAI: CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said here on Saturday that the outcome of a by-election could not be a yardstick to judge the strength of a political party, and alleged that cash-for-votes was the dominant feature of all recent by-elections held in the State.

He was responding to a question on whether the AIADMK had lost its sheen since it had failed to retain its deposit in the by-election to Pennagaram Assembly constituency.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Ramakrishnan recalled the reported remarks of Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta pleading helplessness about distribution of money to voters in Pennagaram constituency. “Let the Election Commission amend the election laws to prevent this practice,” he said.

As regards Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's criticism that the CPI (M) had joined the campaign trail in Pennagaram constituency as an “uninvited guest,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said that the AIADMK leaders had visited the CPI (M) office seeking support for their party candidate. “We could not support the DMK-Congress combine, which is pursuing policies of unbridled liberalisation. So we thought it would be appropriate to back the AIADMK candidate. But, we never shared the dais with the AIADMK during the campaign,” he said.

Accusing the DMK government of turning a blind eye towards “usury business,” widely prevalent in many parts of the State, he said neither Tamil Nadu Money Lenders Act, 1957 nor Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2003 had failed to check the evil trade. The CPI (M) would organise an usury eradication conference in May at Pallipalyam in Namakkal district, where the party's local unit secretary Velusamy was murdered by a gang involved in usury.

‘Jail bharo'

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the Left parties would launch a ‘jail bharo' agitation in Tamil Nadu on April 8 as part of the nationwide protest to highlight the Centre's failure to control the rise in prices of essential commodities, streamline the public distribution system and distribute land to landless farmers.

He stressed the need to enact a law for preventing destruction of agricultural lands in the name of development projects. “Unless it is extremely important, we cannot allow fertile lands being appropriated for other purposes.”

(Courtesy : The Hindu)