CHENNAI: The Reddy pages are boiling Tamil Nadu politics. While opposition parties demanded the firing of ministers whose names figure as beneficiaries of bribe in the diary of mining baron Shekhar Reddy, the ruling Anna DMK was trying hard to defend itself. The by-election at RK Nagar saw the issue boiling over, with ADMK leaders facing questions from the electorate.

The ouster of the returning officer at RK Nagar by the Election Commission added to the heat on Saturday. After his functioning sparked a row. Veluswamy, who had rejected the nomination papers of actor Vishal, accepted it later and rejected it again, was replaced by Praveen Nair.

Various political parties including the main opposition DMK alleged that Veluswamy was partisan. Apart from Vishal, he had also rejected the nomination papers of late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa and made a comment that the two need to learn basics of politics.

DMK working president MK Stalin and PMK chief S. Ramadoss demanded a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) inquiry into the Reddy pages, even as the baron said he has no idea about the diary, which was taken out of his cupboard during an Income-Tax raid in his properties. He insisted he never kept a diary.

“They claim that it was my diary which was not at all written by me. I have never written a diary. They show some paper and claim it to be some diary,” Reddy said.

Stalin faced the media on Saturday. “I do not consider this as something new. I have pointed this out several times,” the Leader of Opposition said. Pointing out that Income Tax raids had revealed “payouts,” he demanded that the ministers should resign from their posts and the Governor should take action on. A CBI inquiry should be held to bring out the truth.

The PMK also sought the resignation of the ministers named in the diary to facilitate a probe by the CBI.

At the same time, the ADMK argued that no action can be taken against anyone by having some unreliable handwritten pages as proof. Their defence is that the DMK and the PMK are known for corruption and hence have “no right to question us.”

Reddy is being investigated by the CBI for a seizure of Rs336 million in new notes (of Rs2,000 denomination) and 177 kilo of gold bars belonging to his company on Dwas enforced. After Reddy’s arrest in December last year, Panneerselvam’s photo with him at the Tirumala Tirupati Temple emerged.