TN Local Body Elections 2022:: BJP poll worker opposes Hijab-clad voters in Madurai, gets replaced

Chennai, Feb 19: In a bizarre incident, a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) booth agent allegedly opposed women voters wearing hijab from voting during the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Body Polls. However, DMK and AIADMK members objected to him and called the police at the booth. He was asked to leave booth.

The incident took place in the 8th ward of Melur municipality.

Reacting to the incident, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin's son and DMK MLA Udayanidhi Stalin said that the people of the state will never accept BJP's antics.

"BJP has always been doing this, we are completely against it. People of Tamil Nadu know whom to select and whom to reject. People of Tamil Nadu will never accept it," he said.

DMK MP Kanimozhi also slammed the BJP saying, "It's very sad that they turn people against people in the name of religion. What a woman chooses to wear is her right. I don't think anybody has the right to decide whether it is too much or too little."

The voting in the urban civic polls in Tamil Nadu began on Saturday at 7 AM across the state amid tight police security.

As many as 57,778 candidates are in the fray for 12,607 posts of ward members in 648 urban local bodies including municipal corporations, municipalities and town panchayats and the voting exercise began in over 31,000 polling stations.

Polls were announced last month by the TNSEC for a total of 12,838 ward member posts in 649 urban civic bodies. The 649 urban local bodies are 21 municipal corporations, 138 municipalities and 490 town panchayats. Subsequently, polls for all the 12 wards in Kadambur town panchayat in Thoothukudi district were cancelled for violations.

The ruling DMK and its allies are together fighting the polls. The main opposition AIADMK's partners during the last year's Assembly polls like the PMK and BJP are facing the civic polls on their own. In some areas, the AIADMK has allocated wards to ...