Former AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala may not be able to cast her vote on Tuesday, 6 April, when Tamil Nadu goes to the polls, as the State Election Commission (SEC) is yet to issue her a voter identity card, reported The News Minute.
Through her lawyer, Sasikala has called it an injustice and said that she will initiate legal action against the officials in question, reported NDTV.
Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dhinakaran’s party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) termed the deletion of her name a conspiracy by the government, according to Hindustan Times, while AMMK’s Thousand Lights candidate N Vaidhyanathan went on to call it Sasikala’s “civil death”.
Deletion of Name From List
According to reports, Sasikala’s voter ID had Poes Garden in Chennai as her residence address. However, after being arrested in the disproportionate assets case in 2017, the government had taken over the building, thereby deleting the voters in that address. Though Sasikala had filed a plea with the SEC in this regard, she is yet to be enlisted in the voters list, reported Puthiya Thalaimurai.
Sasikala’s lawyer Raja Senthoor Panidan said that he had come to know about her name being deleted from the list on 16 March, reported Hindustan Times. He then met with Tamil Nadu Chief Election Officer Satyabrata Sahoo but was told that the time period for making changes in the electoral roll had expired on 9 March.
Sasikala was released from the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru in January after spending four years in prison. Her release which coincided with the Assembly elections, were anticipated to create political waves. However, in a surprising move, the 66-year-old had bid goodbye to politics on March 3.
In a statement she had said: “I never wanted a post or power. I am always thankful for the people of Tamil Nadu. I am staying away from politics and I pray to my sister (late CM Jayalalithaa) and god for establishing a good governance. The true followers of Amma should strive to fight against the ‘evil’ DMK and aim to establish the government of Amma.”
Single-Phase Election in Tamil Nadu
On Tuesday, polling will take place in 88,937 polling stations across the 234 constituencies and a total of 4,17,521 personnel will be involved in the mammoth exercise.
Apart from polling officials, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has also engaged 1,58,263 police and non-police officers for ensuring a peaceful election, The News Minute reported.
As per the Chief Electoral Officer, this includes 23,200 personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), 16,350 personnel from the home guards and police force of other states, 12,411 personnel from Tamil Nadu home guards and 74,163 personnel from the Tamil Nadu Police.
(With inputs from The News Minute, NDTV and Hindustan Times.)
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