PC to EC: Don’t hurt festive mood
Union home minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Thursday cautioned the Election Commission against converting the “festive mood”, normally felt during polls, into depression for people involved by imposing unreasonable conditions.
Campaigning for DMK candidates T.M. Anbarasan and S.R. Raja in Pallavaram and Tambaram constituencies on Thursday evening, Mr Chidambaram said, “We don’t have any quarrel with EC. We have utmost respect and regard for it. We will abide by what EC says.”
However, he referred to the crisis-ridden countries like Libya, Yemen and Tunisia and quickly added, “India is a large democracy of 121 crore people and not a dictatorial land. Election is a democratic festival which takes place every five years. The Election Commission should not attempt to convert a huge marriage house into a different one.”
He also appealed to the media to not join the EC in this regard.
Throwing an open challenge to the AIADMK-led opposition to debate welfare schemes implemented by the DMK regime, Mr Chidambaram accused the AIADMK of copying the DMK manifesto.
The opposition ridiculed the DMK manifesto in 2006, but now they have copied it since the people firmly believe that DMK will fulfill its poll promises, he said.
Refuting the popular theory that no party had formed successive governments in Tamil Nadu, Mr Chidambaram recalled the successive Congress, DMK and AIADMK regimes in the last five decades and Sheila Dikshit and Naveen Patnaik stints in Delhi and Orissa and said, “It is a superstition spread by the media.”
The DMK will fulfill the promises it had made this time too, he added.
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