Zakul Hameed (27) and Mohammed Sadiq Basha are from Kangayam, Ottapalayam. Last night, the two were sitting in-front of a private Mariamman temple and were having a conversation. Another from the locality, Thangavel, asked the two, “Why are you sitting here at this time of the night and conversing loudly?” On asking this, the two parties got into a major argument and tiff.

In the fight that ensued, the two, Zakul and Sadiq, picked up a stone from the ground, and flung it a the Mariamman mud statue that was in-front of the temple. They then fled the place. The statue was damaged because of the petty fight that followed the argument. The Kangayam Police then arrested both Zakul Hameed and Mohammed Sadiq Basha after a complaint was registered.

(With inputs from Dinamalar)

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Four election supervisors have been replaced in the past 15 days in the Coimbatore district due to an increase in political clashes and subsequent tensions.  The DMK is very particular in bagging seats in Coimbatore, as the party has no MLAs from the district. On the other hand, AIADMK is working to sustain the success that they saw in Coimbatore, during the Assembly elections.

BJP, that is contesting alone, is of the aim to atleast get a sizeable number of ward councillors through this elections, and is therefore working towards the same, just like the other Dravidian parties. In this light, the state election commission officials are caught in the middle with the ruling party on the one side and the opposition parties on the other. They are unaware of the steps they need to take, because which ever side they lean towards, they will end up facing trouble.

It is being reported that even IAS officers are not comfortable coming to this region to become an election supervisor. In a way to confirm this report, almost 4 Election Supervisors have been replaced in Coimbatore in just the past 15 days.

When supervisors were allocated for all the 38 districts on February 1, IAS officer Mariam Pallavi Baldev was appointed for this region. However, it is being said that she could not make it to the region because she was unwell. She was then replaced by IAS officer Har Sahay Meena, who was doing a good job, supervising polling booths and vote counting booths. While the reason is still unclear, she was replaced by Pawan Kumar Panchal, on Saturday.

Many in the region were not even aware of the placement of this IAS officer. Only when he participated in a number of supervisions, including the checking of Postal vote boxes, did many authorities discover that he was the new Election Supervisor. However, even he is replaced by an IAS Officer, Govinda Rao, who is now the Electoral Supervisor for Kovai. He has started performing his duties in Kovai from yesterday.

With just 3 days left for the Elections, political clashes and enmity between the political parties have increased, resulting in widespread fear. So, the question at stake here is whether this IAS officer will be able to sustain until the elections.

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Ahead of the local body polls in Tamil Nadu, DMK’s treasurer TR Baalu said, “DMK cadres should not have any shame or self-respect.”

While addressing a group of DMK candidates contesting from Kancheepuram in the upcoming elections, he said, “If you wish to become the mayor, you have to go door-to-door. Don’t create enmity within the party, forget about the ideas of betrayal. All of you fight for votes with unity. We have given 505 electoral promises in our election manifesto. Almost 90% of it has been already fulfilled.

DMK leader Stalin said, “A lot of people are suffering without a livelihood due to the covid pandemic. Many are suffering from hunger. So, we should provide them all with ₹5,000. However, the previous ruling government did not provide this. Stalin then said that once he becomes the Chief Minister, he would provide every family with ₹4,000, and he did as he said.

The district secretary is saying that people are reprimanding him because he did not provide them with seats for contesting in the elections. They will reprimand you. You can’t expected to be garlanded all the time. Be happy you are not hit with stones.

How much of difficulty would I have faced when I was the District Secretary? You can be leader in the party only if you don’t have shame and self-respect. Remember, we will have respect only till we are in DMK. T R Baalu maybe a big person. You can be famous across India because of that. You can even pull Modi’s leg in the Parliament because of that.

But, TR Baalu can speak boldly and will have respect only because he is a part of the DMK family. If I am thrown out of DMK, I will become a nobody. If you administrators act appropriately, you will be appreciated. But irresponsible administrators will be considered a waste, and we will take appropriate action on them,” he concluded.

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Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a protest against the removal and sealing of the statue from a Ganesha temple which is located in Balaji Nagar near Pollachi in the Coimbatore District.

An individual named Prakash had filed a case at the Madras High Court against the temple stating that the temple needs to razed down because it is a disturbance for the people around it. 

The court that heard the case, ordered the Tashildar to remove the temple and restore the site. Following this, on February 10, Tashildar Arasakumar went with the police and tried to raze down the temple.

Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad strongly opposed and staged a protest led by Mahesh, the district secretary of VHP. He also embraced the statue and raised slogans that it could be removed only after his death. The Police then forcefully detained Mahesh and destroyed the statue, before sealing the temple. 

Commenting on this, Vishwa Hindu Parishad District Secretary Mahesh said, “We were detained by the police while protesting when the Tashildar tried to remove the statue. Earlier, the place was used by anti-social elements for nefarious activities. No such incidents have taken place since the temple was built there. There is no clarity on who the DMK government is satisfying by removing this temple. Even if they’re removing the statue, it has to be done according to the Agamas of the temple. The DMK government is not following any of this.”

(With inputs from Kathir News)

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