The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Election of Azhagiri, Baalu and Kumar challenged

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Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Election of Azhagiri, Baalu and Kumar challenged

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The CPI (M) candidate in the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency in the recent polls has challenged the election of M.K.Azhagiri of the DMK from the constituency before the Madras High Court. Petitions seeking to declare the election of the AIADMK candidate in Tiruchirappalli constituency and the DMK candidate in Sriperumbudur were also filed in the court on Monday.

In his petition, the CPI (M) contestant in Madurai, P.Mohan, alleged that Mr.Azhagiri indulged “in bribing the electors by distributing money.” Based on complaints, FIRs had been registered. About 70 per cent of the voters in the constituency had been induced by Mr.Azhagiri through his agents by giving them a gratification of Rs.500 in cash to vote in his favour. During Mr.Azhagiri’s campaign, women performed ‘aarathi’ to him. Tokens were distributed to the women who were given Rs.100. Besides these, saris and dhotis were distributed to electors.

Mr.Mohan alleged that the government PRO had abused his official position.

The petitioner said following a representation, the Madurai Police Commissioner who allegedly abused his official position, was transferred. Mr.Azhagiri used his influence through two local television channels when they were telecasting the Meenakshi Amman temple ‘kumbabhishekam.’ He canvassed for votes during the programme. The petitioner prayed the court to declare the DMK candidate’s election as null and void.

In his petition, A.K.Moorthy of the PMK said T.R.Baalu of DMK managed to win the election by “large scale corrupt practices” in contravention of the law.

The petitioner said out of the six Assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency, many irregularities were found in Pallavaram and Sriperumbudur Assembly constituencies.

There were numerous contradictions in the details about the dispatch of EVMs and the actual machines that were used in the particulars of polling and counting results pertaining to the Pallavaram Assembly Constituency.

Most of the EVMs which were used in the Lok Sabha constituency were found to be either doctored or defective as they never showed the correct particulars. This had materially affected the result of the election. Mr.Moorthy alleged that Mr.Baalu abused his official position.

An Independent candidate, P.Nagarajan of Maduravoyal, has also filed a petition challenging Mr.Baalu’s election.

Tiruchirappalli

Seeking to declare the election of P.Kumar of the AIADMK in Tiruchirappalli constituency as null and void, Sarubala R.Thondaiman, who contested on the Congress ticket, submitted that after the counting was over, the Returning Officer had announced in a “whimsical manner” without considering the request made for recounting of votes, that Mr.Kumar had been duly elected. She said she was leading in all Assembly segments.

However, as per the statement relating to the Srirangam Assembly segment, it was shown that Mr.Kumar polled 70,949 votes and she got 50,767 votes. She alleged that there were “various discrepancies in the manner of announcing the votes polled” by the candidates.

Noticing the ‘discrepancies’ in announcing the number of votes in the Srirangam segment, her election agent requested the Returning Officer for recounting and retotalling of the votes.

But the officer refused to entertain the request. On account of not complying with the mandatory requirements contemplated under Rule 49 (O), the petitioner’s margin in other Assembly segments, more particularly Pudukottai and Gandharvakkottai, was substantially reduced. The petitioner alleged that the returned candidate had spent Rs.2 crore, contrary to the limitation imposed by law.

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