The DMK has submitted three representations to the Chief Electoral Officer — one seeking legal action against AIADMK candidate Natham R. Viswanathan, who it alleged, paid a bribe to a voter; another complaining that a government portal was promoting Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar’s election campaign and the third about a portal campaigning against DMK president M.K. Stalin.
DMK spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP R.S. Bharathi alleged that Mr. Viswanathan, the AIADMK candidate for the Natham Assembly constituency and his supporters were bribing the voters, by giving currency notes to persons who took arathi when he was campaigning. The act was totally prohibited under 4.4.2 (b)(ii) of the ECI - MCC guidelines. He also produced a video clip about the alleged incident.
In another representation, he said the model code of conduct prohibited the party in power from influencing the voters in any form. But Mr. Vijayabaskar continued to post his election campaigns and field visits on the government website on COVID-19: https://stopcorona.tn.gov.in “in utter violation of the laws”. He enclosed screenshots of the portal.
In the third representation, Mr. Bharathi claimed a portal named https://muttrupullifordmk.com/ uploaded “untruthful content” against DMK president M.K. Stalin and social media users had taken such fake content and started sharing it in their personal handle. “We strongly believe this website is backed by the AIADMK. Kindly take immediate action to block this website,” he said, as it violated the model code of conduct.
