Amidst the speculations that the state of Tamil Nadu will host local body elections in December after accounting for the long delay, the ADMK led state government has webbed the controversies and accusations after the government had allegedly transferred the secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission.

The move of transferring Palaniswami, the secretary of Election commission and replacing him with Villupuram collector as per the order passed by the Chief Secretary of Government of Tamil Nadu Shanmugam has come during the high time when the political parties and the people are preparing to elect the Mayors, Chairmans for Rural Panchayats and Urban Municipalities whose position were held vacant for the past three years and whose powers have been imposed to the state government authorities. By condemning the odd development in transferring the secretary, the state's opposition leader and the President of DMK, M K Stalin has blamed the government for carrying out the transfer when the commission has been fiercely working for the local body polls. 

By tweeting his condemnation, he accused the state government's order to transfer Palaniswami, who has been executing elections works as per the directive of Madras High court and he further questioned the order of replacing him with Villupuram district collector who, he claimed that, has been awarded the transfer for his 'loyal' work during Vikkravandi by-elections. He cited the transfer with the possibilities of either postponing the elections or to prompt the ADMK party in allegedly involving in disorders during the elections.

The reports say that the transfer of Palaniswami was one among many IAS officers of the state and district collectors who were transferred on Thursday. After having been transferred from the election commission, Palaniswami has been appointed as Director of Town Panchayats.

With having one month left for the local body polls, the state's top parties ADMK and DMK have already started distributing applications for the fellow party men who wish to contest in the polls. Earlier in the week, the state election commission had issued a notification to conduct the local body polls in December and added that the notification also carries the directives of polling hours in panchayats, town panchayats, municipalities, and corporations where the eligible voters can cast their votes from 7 am to 5 pm. The official cited that the polls would be undergoing two phases and while no confirmation has been issued by the commission on the dates, it has been speculated that the polls that would be conducted on 27th and 28th December.