Chennai, Oct 5 (PTI) The DMK on Monday backed Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s statement asserting that alliance victory is more important than seat-sharing and all must unite to defeat the BJP.
Reports surfaced suggesting tension between the SP and Congress over seat sharing for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Meanwhile, Yadav took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday to assert that the primary focus should be on defeating the BJP and protecting democracy, the Constitution, and reservation.
Speaking to PTI Videos, DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan said DMK backs SP’s stance. “The alliance should win and defeat the BJP. One party getting two or three seats more is not the question. Everybody should stand united to defeat the BJP,” he said.
The senior DMK leader also launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission and the BJP, alleging that anti-BJP voters are being deliberately scrubbed from electoral rolls.
Reacting to the row over the alleged removal of genuine voters from electoral lists — a matter that has reached the Supreme Court — Elangovan accused the saffron party of manipulating voter rolls to target specific communities.
“BJP is doing everything. They want to remove the voters. Particularly, they are using the revision to remove people of other religions because they will not vote for the BJP. So anti-BJP voters’ names are being removed continuously,” he said.
The DMK leader further mounted a sharp attack on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the poll body of losing its neutrality. Calling the alleged voter deletion a “very serious offence,” Elangovan claimed the Election Commission had ceased to be an independent watchdog.
“The Election Commission is a neutral body. But after Gyanesh Kumar had come, it is not a neutral body,” he claimed, alleging that Kumar was functioning under the influence of the ruling party at the Centre.
He also dismissed claims that the Tamil Nadu government saved Rs 187 crore in pulses procurement. Elangovan said such assertions lacked merit. “They will claim anything. They have not procured, so the money is saved. Maybe that is the reason. They have not done any good to the people of Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The state government announced it had saved approximately Rs 187.56 crore over three months on tur dal procurement for ration shops. The government attributed this to transparent open tenders that eliminated excess commissions, effectively dropping the per-kilo procurement price from Rs 109.15 (under the previous DMK regime) to Rs 77.89.
When asked about a petition filed in the Madras High Court by private bus operators contending that the women’s free bus travel scheme was hurting their business, Elangovan said, “Private bus owners do not want to give free travel to women. The court will decide on this,” he said. PTI JR ADB
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.