Tirupur: Elections to the posts of co-operative societies have turned out to be a high stakes game for ruling AIADMK and the principal opposition party DMK so much that the process has been marred by protests.
On Monday, police had to lathicharge the protesting DMK men at Tirupur, who broke police cordon and barged into the office of the Tirupur Co-operative Housing Credit Society on Kumaran Road where the elections were scheduled. The candidates of the opposition parties were stopped by the police in front of the premises on Kumaran Road. Enraged that they were not being allowed to contest the elections, DMK cadres along with CPM members shoved aside the police and entered the premises resulting in chaos and scuffle. Police resorted to lathicharge and chased them away.
A few cadres were injured in the incident. They later resorted to a slogan shouting protest outside the premises. The election was eventually cancelled.
Election officer Shoba announced that she has cancelled the election because she did not get the required co-operation from the candidates. “The election stands cancelled as there is no co-operation from the candidates in filing nominations. The candidates failed to stand in queue and filed the nominations in the prescribed manner,” she said.
Earlier in the day, AIADMK candidates had entered the society in presence of a heavy deployment of police personnel. They filed nominations accompanied by AIADMK Tirupur urban secretary and former state minister MSM Anandan. “Police stopped only DMK candidates,” former mayor and DMK North district secretary K Selvaraj said. Condemning the lathicharge, he alleged that the official machinery was hand in glove with the ruling party to prevent DMK men from contesting.
It was not just Tirupur, the elections were marred by protests in Coimbatore, Salem as well as several other parts of the state, as the nominations of DMK men were either rejected or they were not allowed to file them. At Selliampalayam in Salem, DMK and AIADMK men attacked each other with wooden logs during filing of nominations. Elsewhere in Salem too there were at least three protests by DMK men accusing the officials of not accepting their nominations.
With crores of rupees accumulated as loans from funding agencies and deposits from members, the societies have always been a hotbed of corruption. A society must have a minimum of 25 members and there is no cap on the maximum number of members. Elections are conducted to the posts of directors, who run the society, every five years. But the elections are largely influenced by the political party in power and eventually only the members from the ruling party win.