In a letter to Mr Tandon, a copy of which was released to the press here, DMK President M Karunanidhi expressed surprise over Mr Tandon's announcement made here yesterday and urged the CEC to take precautionary measures to ensure that his announcement was not misterpreted and misused by the AIADMK Government.

He also urged the CEC to ensure conduct of elections in a free and fair manner.

''The AIADMK Government has been frantically relying on the doles which they have proposed to distribute to the people. Now your announcement would come to them handy and it would be intrepreted as a green signal to implement all the Government Orders issued before March one this year'', he added.

He alleged that since the EC had not got the list of beneficiaries identified by the State Government before March one, there was every possibility for the State Government to manipulate the list by including additional beneficiaries and stealthily go ahead by distributing benefits both in cash and kind.

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