Collector meets politicos; parties don't want bypoll for now

: The district collector has convened a meeting of leaders of the all politicalparties to hear their views on holding byelections to the Tiruvarur assemblyconstituency even as relief work for those affected by 'Gaja' cyclone was on.

The parties were not willing to face the byelection in view of the devastation caused by Gaja and also because of the rehabilitation and relief work, officials sources said.

If the byelection work started, the relief operations would be hampered due to the poll code of conduct.

Earlier, CPI leader D Raja had requested the election commission not to hold the byelection as time was not appropriate with the people recovering from the impact of the cyclone.

AIADMK technical wing functionary Chinnaraj, DMK leader Vijayan and Communist Sundaramurthy and leaders from Congress participated in the meeting.

They suggested that the bypoll be held along with the Lok Sabha elections.

The leaders wondered why the byelection had been ordered for only one constituency. Either the bypoll should be held along with 19 constituencies or held along with the Lok Sabha polls.

The collector Nirmal Kumar had sent his report on the outcome of the meeting to thechief electoral officer of Tamil Nadu.

The CEO, in turn, has sent the report to the Election Commission for action.