The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday wrote to the Election Commission, accusing Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy of violating the Model Code of Conduct by giving “freebies to public”, ANI reported.

The Lok Sabha elections for 2019 will be held from April 11 to May 19, and the results will be announced on May 23. Puducherry will vote on April 18.

In his letter to the poll panel, AIADMK MLA Vaiyapuri Manikandan accused Narayanaswamy of disbursing cash payments from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for members of his Congress party. The payments, he claimed, were made in the form of pre-dated cheques in some regions of Puducherry.

“Even though there are no adequate funds in the account, the bank authorities have been instructed not to bounce the cheques and keep [waiting until] account is credited,” he claimed. “The bank authorities release payments as and when the account is re-filled. The pending amount will be released soon after the receipt of funds, without catching the eyes of anybody.”

Manikandan further said: “At the outset, no one could blame the chief minister for violation of Model Code of Conduct directly at the moment, but the money transfer is taking place in a phased manner even after the MCC has been implemented.”

The chief minister’s activities are “misappropriating” funds of the exchequer and violating the Model Code, the AIADMK leader said, requesting the Election Commission to intervene and stop the transfer of the funds from the relief fund until the Lok Sabha election in Puducherry.