Karunanidhi complains to EC over Jaya's charge on campaign

Chennai, Apr 6 (UNI) DMK President M Karunanidhi today complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for her statement that the Commission had changed the deadline for campaigning under pressure from him.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon, copy of which was made available to the press here, the DMK leader said Ms Jayalalithaa had been using a pack of lies in her election propaganda and the statement was one such lie.

Ms Jayalalithaa who was touring in Thanjavur last night, told newspersons that the deadline for campaigning was originally fixed at 2300 hrs, but because of the pressure exerted by Mr Karunanidhi, the ECI had changed and fixed it uniformly at 2200 hrs for both urban and rural areas.

Presenting a scanned copy of the press clippings of Ms Jayalalithaa's remarks, Mr Karunanidhi said that the AIADMK leader had done this deliberately with an evil design to hoodwink the people.

''When I came to know of the change in the norm, I took it as yet another measure, being introduced by the Election Commission to regulate and discipline the campaign by the political parties. But Ms Jayalalithaa is trying to attribute motive to the decision of the Election Commission and questioned its neutrality,'' he said.

He also recalled Ms Jayalalithaa's threat sometime back to sue the Election Commission in a court of law. ''These threats and slanders, if allowed to go unnoticed, will sow a seed of suspicion in the minds of the people,'' Mr Karunanidhi said.

Therefore, the Election Commission should react to Ms Jayalalithaa's statement and explain the circumstances, which led to changing the campaign deadline, so that people were not carried away by her false and feigned statements.

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