AIADMK to boycott elections to cooperative societies: Jaya

Chennai, Jun 1 (UNI) AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa today said her party would boycott elections to the cooperative societies, scheduled for June 8.

In a statement here, she said the AIADMK would stay away from the elections as the ruling DMK was not interested in conducting the elections in a free and democratic manner.

She said when the Minister for Cooperation announced elections during the debate on the demand for grants for the department in the Assembly, the AIADMK members had opposed it saying that the elections should be conducted only after removing all fake members.

However, the DMK government was bent upon holding the elections with the same ''fake members'', which would be meaningless and serve no purpose to the people, she alleged.

After coming to power in 1996, the DMK government had removed a number of genuine members as they belonged to the AIADMK and included ''fake members'', who belonged to the DMK, she said.

The AIADMK, after coming to power in 2001, challenged the election and when the case was pending before the Supreme Court, the DMK government withdrew the case and was now planning to hold elections to the cooperative societies with the same ''fake members''.

UNI