A case has been registered by the police in connection with the alleged bribing of voters of the R.K. Nagar constituency, where a by-election slated for April 12 was rescinded by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for use of money power, the Tamil Nadu Assembly was informed on Monday.
Chief Minister K. Palaniswami was responding to Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin (DMK) and Congress members' raising the issue of the ECI asking the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to lodge a police case on the issue.
“A probe is on,” he said, citing the ECI’s directive to the CEO that was referred in an RTI reply to a Chennai advocate.
However, the DMK members rose, saying they were not satisfied with the Chief Minister's response.
Later, they staged a walkout.
The DMK’s allies, Congress MLAs and the lone IUML member followed suit.
Earlier, soon after the question hour ended, Mr. Stalin sought adjournment of the House to debate the ECI’s directive.
Speaker P. Dhanapal allowed the DMK leader to raise the issue but asked him not to get into the details of it, saying there was not much time to obtain sufficient inputs from the government.
Later, some remarks made by Mr. Stalin in connection with the issue were expunged by the Speaker.
The issue of the ECI’s directive came to the fore after a copy of its response to a plea under the Right to Information Act by lawyer M.P. Vairakkannan was circulated to media on Sunday.
The ECI said it had directed the CEO on April 18 to ask the R.K. Nagar Returning Officer to file a complaint with police for the bribing of voters.