As the state Election Commission of Tamil Nadu prepares to host the rural local body elections in the state which will be held in two phases on December 27th and 30th, the actors and politicians of the state Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have decided to stay off from the election track while the state's opposition party seemingly build the barrier in the track with the view of halting the local body elections for yet another time by igniting the revolt for the Supreme court verdict and the notification issued by the state Election Commission on Saturday.

On Sunday, Rajinikanth led Rajini Makkal Mandram had stated that the actor and political hopeful would neither be contesting in the elections nor extending his support for any parties in the local body polls. The statement, issued by Rajini Makkal Mandram's Sudhakar, reads the warning of using the star's name and portrait in the campaign trail and cited that the body would be initiating legal action against anyone trying to misuse and to demean the actor's name in the local polls. The statement further urged the political parties not to solicit the votes under the name of the actor or from Rajini Makkal Mandram.

By echoing the same stance, the leader of Makkal Needhi Maiam Kamal Haasan has said that the party would skip the local body polls. Haasan cited the power of money as the party's decision to stay off from the local body polls. Through his statement, he stated that the money power would overrule the people's support in the polls and claimed that the elections will stage a political drama between the two Dravidian parties. He added that his party believes in honesty and decided to skip the elections.

On the other hand, while the actors have stepped out of the race, the state's opposition party DMK has reportedly been torching the legal battle to barricade the elections by citing that the delimitations of wards are yet to be completed in the state without which the elections can't be held. The opposition party had presented two different stands for the past two days, where on Saturday, the party's president M K Stalin had welcomed the Supreme court verdict, on directing the election commission to conduct the elections in the state apart from the nine new districts, as the historical judgment and on Sunday, he backtracked and earthed his stand after his party had decided to table the petition in the Supreme court against the local body elections.

The DMK party has passed a resolution on Sunday during the meeting to the district secretaries, MLAs, and MPs, through which the party has claimed that the elections have been proposed without completing the delimitation of wards and reserving the electoral seats for the SC/ST people. In his statement, Stalin said that the party has no option left apart from reaching out to the Supreme court towards seeking its directive to conduct the local body elections after the ward delimitations and reservation of seats have completed.

Through its resolution, the DMK party had accused the state election commission to conduct the polls by failing to finalize the delimitation of the wards. Speaking to the reporters in Coimbatore,  Chief Minister and ADMK's Joint coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami has slashed the DMK party and its president for causing uncertainty over conducting the local body elections and he further accused the double standard of Stalin and claimed that the DMK party is hesitant and scared of facing the people and the polls.

On Monday, DMK and its allied parties have tabled its petition before the Supreme court on seeking the directive to halt the local body elections until the delimitation of the wards completed and the reports say that the Apex court would likely to hear the petition on Wednesday.

Also read: https://thenewstuff.in/local-body-elections-sec-upholds-its-previous-announcements-dates