Chennai: The man who wanted to be at least a kingmaker in Tamil Nadu politics is angry. PMK leader and MP Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss' party was not only routed in the recent elections but the man himself lost from his seat.
While accusing the money power of AIADMK and DMK for his party's defeat, Ramadoss also claimed that pre-poll surveys had an impact on the neutral voter.
"Money played a major role and voters were bribed. DMK spent Rs 6,000 crore and the AIADMK Rs 10,000 crore on bribing voters. If money had not played a role, we would have had about 62 to 65 MLAs.
Secondly, the Election Commission didn't work. We made about 15 complaints but there was no action. Nearly 80% of the officers posted for election duty were AIADMK supporters. We even caught a couple of people who were distributing money. But a case was filed against us," the former Union health minister said.
The final results on May 19 only confirmed the pre-poll surveys which had predicted a bipolar contest between the AIADMK and DMK-led alliance. But according to him the Tamil Nadu voters were swayed by the surveys and did not try out the third alternative.
"The good thing is we proved that we are an alternative to both these parties. In this election we got more votes compared to the previous election. We have reached the people, we have a base and our campaign was successful," he claimed.
Ramadoss, who promised prohibition during the campaign, welcomed Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa's decision to close down 500 shops and reduce the timings of state-owned liquor outlets. But he expressed no faith in her and demanded a blueprint on how she was going to implement her decisions.
Reacting to DMK's plan of approaching the Madras High Court on Election Commission's alleged failure to rein in the money power, he said, "DMK's take on money distribution is farcical. In Aravakuruchi about Rs 1 crore was found in DMK's Palaniswami's house. When I met Lakhoni (Chief Electoral Officer of TN), I said if they are going to postpone elections at Aravakuruchi why not it do for all constituencies since money is being distributed everywhere. They couldn't answer that."
Ramadoss added that he would meet the Chief Election Commissioner as well as a Parliamentary standing committee and demand a law to disqualify candidates
Refusing to buy the government's version that Rs 570 crore seized before the election was actually the State Bank of India money, he said, "Firstly we need a CBI enquiry to get the details, There are bank norms to transfer money and from one bank to another within the district itself. Three container trucks transferring money at 12.30 in the night without any seal, police escort or official paper is unexplainable. But after 18 hours the SBI said it was an intra state transfer. But the news didn't come on Jaya TV (the AIADMK mouthpiece). It came on every other channel."
He also reiterated that he can ally with any party except the DMK and the AIADMK as he wanted to provide a third alternative.
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