Chennai, July 28 - AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa Tuesday asked the Election Commission to declare the candidates of the DMK-Congress alliance winners in the by-elections to the five assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, instead of wasting the taxpayers' money on the poll.

Citing her party's decision to boycott the poll on 'Gandhian principles' as the elections 'will not be free and fair', Jayalalithaa said: 'When there will be no contest with a major party like AIADMK boycotting, where is the need for an election?'

'The Election Commission will be spending several lakhs of rupees belonging to the taxpayers which is unnecessary. Instead of holding the elections, it will be better to declare the candidates of DMK-Congress alliance as the winners and save the taxpayers' money,' she said in a statement released here.

However, despite the absence of AIADMK and its allies MDMK and PMK, the by-elections in the state will see the DMK-Congress alliance facing the DMDK, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).