Stalin hails SC order on local body polls in TN

DMK President M K Stalin on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court decision to put on hold the elections for local bodies in nine new districts, carved out of four existing ones in Tamil Nadu, as he sought to assert his party never wanted to stop the polls from being held.

A "planned campaign" was being carried out that his party had moved the apex court only to stop the elections from being held in the state, he said.

"This verdict upholds democracy. I wholeheartedly welcome it on behalf of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam," the party chief told reporters here.

DMK never moved the court seeking a stay against conducting the polls but only insisted that delimitation and reservation was not proper, he said adding the party has been highlighting it since 2016, when the polls were originally due.

"If we say hold elections in a proper manner, a planned false campaign is carried out that DMK is trying to stop the polls," he said, and accused "some" in the media also of echoing such an allegation made by certain politicians, though he did not name anyone.

The court verdict was a 'victory' for DMK's demands regarding delimitation and reservation, Stalin, also Tamil Nadu Leader of Opposition, said.

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to put on hold the elections to local bodies in nine new districts for complying with legal formalities such as delimitation and reservation in four months.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde considered the suggestion put forward by the Tamil Nadu government that it was willing to put on hold the civic polls in these districts for complying with legal formalities like a fresh delimitation exercise and for deciding the issue of reservation for women and SC/ST candidates.

The top court's order came on a plea moved by the DMK seeking a direction to the state authorities to "carry out delimitation, reservation and rotation process and fulfill all other legal requirements before issuing any election notifications and conducting elections" for the local bodies.

The much delayed elections to rural local bodies in Tamil Nadu will be held in two phases on December 27 and 30, the State Election Commission had announced on Monday.