Tamil Nadu cabinet should resign — DMK
Opposition demands probe into what it calls ‘massive corruption’ by ruling AIADMK faction
Tamil Nadu’s opposition DMK has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister E. Palaniswamy and his council of ministers for alleged electoral malpractices, or their sacking by the governor if they fail to resign, an official said yesterday.
The DMK’s three members of Parliament — R.S. Bharathi, T.K.S. Elangovan and T.N. Siva — called on Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao, who also holds the charge of Tamil Nadu, and submitted a party memorandum to him on the matter.
The DMK demanded that Rao should advise the Centre to launch a CBI probe into what the party called “massive corruption” indulged in by the ruling AIADMK faction in the runup to the Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency by-election, which has since been cancelled by the Election Commission.
Foreign exchange case
The by-election was necessitated by the death of the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha on December 5, 2016, who held the seat in the assembly.
DMK Working President M.K. Stalin said T.T.V. Dinakaran, fielded for the poll by the AIADMK faction led by V.K. Sasikala [who is now jailed in a corruption case], is facing a foreign exchange regulation case tried on a day-to-day basis.
The DMK chief said, soon after filing his nomination papers, Dinakaran and the “puppet” Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues “appear to have entered into a criminal conspiracy to spend nearly Rs100 crore [Rs1 billion; Dh56.78 million] of ill-gotten wealth to bribe each voter in the constituency”.
Stalin, son of former Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi, claimed AIADMK workers were instructed to go from door-todoor to pay Rs10,000 to each voter in the constituency, apart from doling out gifts like lamps, saris, milk tokens and phone recharge coupons.
He said official machinery, including police vans and ministers’ official vehicles with red beacons, were “misused” to carry the cash that was distributed to the prospective voters.
On April 7, the Income Tax Department raided Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, and carried out searches at 32 locations in Tamil Nadu.
‘Bribed voters’
Stalin said the IT Department had gone on record to detail how seven key aides of Dinakaran distributed more than Rs896 million to bribe voters.
The DMK leader said the raiding team seized Rs50 million and documents from Vijayabaskar, which he claimed indicated the involvement of Palaniswamy and his ministers in the bribery scandal.