Karunanidhi

Chennai, Jan. 17: The DMK and its allies today asked their 99 councillors in the 155-member Chennai Corporation to resign following a split verdict by the high court on whether the civic polls had been rigged by them.

These councillors — from the DMK, Congress, PMK and the Dalit Panthers of India — will quit to allow fresh elections in their 99 disputed wards, DMK president and chief minister M. Karunanidhi said.

A few days ago, a two-judge Madras High Court bench had failed to make up its mind on a batch of petitions demanding repolling in all the 155 wards. The major Opposition parties — including the ADMK, MDMK and CPM — had alleged rigging, booth-capturing and violence in the October 2005 polls.

Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyay had dismissed the petitions citing a constitutional bar to entertaining public interest litigation on poll-related matters, which can be addressed only through individual petitions by defeated candidates.

But Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla allowed the petitions, saying it was an “extreme and extraordinary situation” warranting an extraordinary remedy. He ordered fresh elections in all the 99 wards under the scanner.

Chief Justice A.P. Shah was expected to refer the petitions to a larger bench, but Justice Kalifulla’s ruling was embarrassing enough for the DMK government to ask the alliance’s councillors to resign.

After the split verdict, Karunanidhi had asked DMK civic commissioner M. Subramaniyam not to take any important policy or administrative decision till the final judgment was passed.

But as the Opposition campaign grew shriller by the day, the chief minister spoke to his allies and decided on fresh elections in wards the ruling combine had won.

He explained he wanted to avoid having to wait until the court had passed its final verdict — especially because even that could be challenged by someone in the Supreme Court.

Karunanidhi’s decision came hours after ADMK chief Jayalalithaa said the state government would be torn apart by the increasing contradictions between the DMK and its allies. She predicted a change of government by the end of the year.

Jayalalithaa had recently attacked the Karunanidhi regime for handing out one freebie after another, which she felt amounted to deceiving the people while putting the state on “the road to bankruptcy”.