Varsha Sriram

After looking through the preliminary report and conducting an internal review, TTV said that the party candidates did not secure a single vote in over 300 polling booths.

After facing a massive defeat in both the Lok Sabha general elections as well as the by-elections in 22 constituencies of Tamil Nadu, AMMK General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran expressed his shock over his party getting zero votes in 300 booths. 

TTV Dhinakaran, while speaking to reporters on Sunday in Chennai alleged that several votes had ‘disappeared.’ He slammed the Election Commission for alleged malpractices in the elections and sought answers from the Commission on the non-registration of votes for his party in the election in a number of polling booths across the state. 

After looking through the preliminary report and conducting an internal review, TTV said that the party candidates did not secure a single vote in over 300 polling booths. He also refused to believe the same as the party had appointed four party agents per polling booth and questioned if the party’s own agents did not cast vote for their party. Though he said that AMMK accepted the verdict of the people and did not want to blame anyone, the General Secretary sought an explanation from the Election Commission. 

When TTV was asked if the party agents were AIADMK’s sleeper cells in AMMK, he said, as quoted by Times of India, “If they were AIADMK people but pretended to be with us, they would have voted and scooted, abandoning the booths. Such agents would not have stayed with us till the end, until the voting ended.”

TTV also expressed his concerns and said that there were several instances where the vote base in booths did not match the votes registered in the EVMs. As quoted by TOI, TTV said, “In the booth, where me and my family cast our votes, there are at least 150 people who are part of our core support group, including relatives and friends, besides employees. But during counting it should just 14 votes for us. That is our concern.” 

Dhinakaran said that AMMK will continue to raise its voice on the issues of state irrespective of whether they win or lose the elections. Refuting rumours on possible desertions from the party, he said that no person or a group of people can be forced to stick with one party and just because people leave, that does not mean the party will seize to exist.