In a hard-hitting editorial, under the headline 'Chandigarh to Surat,’ in Murasoli, the party’s official newspaper, on Thursday, the DMK continued its onslaught against the BJP even after the elections in the State were over and said the Surat and Chandigarh elections would remain the ultimate shining examples of electoral malpractice in the country as it could not get worse than this.
The blatant chicanery that was on display at the unanimous selection of the Surat Member of Parliament and the deceit adopted to choose the Chandigarh Mayor were proof of the Modi style of democracy that would come to force, it said.
Giving details of both the incidents, the editorial said that in Surat, the Congress candidate was disqualified after the nominations were filed and the independents were made to withdraw their papers to enable the declaration of the BJP candidate as the unopposed winner.
In the case of Surat, though the alliance of Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress had 20 councillors as against the BJP’s 14, eight votes were declared as invalid and the BJP candidate was announced as the Mayor, in blatant violation of norms.
While the court had overruled the election of the Chandigarh Mayor, the day re-elections to the Surat Lok Sabha seat were held were not too far, the editorial said and pointed out that the Election Commission of India was not informed of the extraordinary situation that rose in Surat.
Would the situation have unfolded in the same fashion if the BJP candidate had been disqualified in the Surat constituency, it wondered, pointing to the partial manner in which the ECI was working.
