A glitch in one of the control units has delayed declaration of results in Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency and it was almost 2 a.m. on Saturday when the Returning Officer (RO) V.Rajaraman handed over the election certificate to the winning All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate.
When the 21st and penultimate round of counting of votes polled in Karaikudi Assembly segment was taken up late Friday night, a control unit of a particular polling station in the segment refused to open, forcing the officials to examine a way out and declare the results.
After taking into account the votes secured by the leading and the runner-up candidates and taking into the confidence of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Praveen Kumar in Chennai and Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi, the RO, and General observer G. Ramesh Kumar set aside the 245 votes polled in the particular faulty Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and declared the results.
Only by 1.30 a.m.By the time the RO declared the results, it was around 1.30 a.m. and P.R. Senthilnathan, who won the seat by a margin of 2,29,385 votes, received his election certificate around 2 a.m. The AIADMK volunteers, however, celebrated his victory on Friday morning itself, after he established an unassailable lead.
They burst crackers and distributed sweets to the passers-by near the party office here. The Election Commission had given the consent immediately, but the process of getting reports from all the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) and sending the report to the CEO and the Election Commission took time, Mr Rajaraman told The Hindu . Otherwise, the counting went on smoothly with the cooperation of the election staff, candidates and their agents, he said.
Second time in newsThe constituency hit the national headlines during the 2009 general elections when the results were delayed after an alleged irregularity in counting and the electoral fortunes of Congress leader P. Chidambaram hanged in the balance.
Even before the counting was completed, AIADMK men celebrated the victory of its candidate R.S. Raja Kannappan by a margin of 4,000 votes, but eventually Mr. Chidambaram was declared elected by a margin of 3,354 votes by the then RO Pankaj Kumar Bansal.
Mr. Kannappan had challenged Mr Chidambaram’s election and the petition is still pending before the Madras High court.
Mr. Senthilnathan secured 4,75,993 votes, while DMK candidate Subha Dhurairaj got 2,46,608 votes, BJP candidate H.Raja 1,33,763 votes, Congress candidate Karti P Chidambaram 1,04,678 votes and CPI candidate S.Krishnan got 20,473 votes.
There were 27 candidates in the fray and but for the DMK candidate all others have forfeited their deposits. A total of 8,042 voters had gone for the NOTA option in the constituency.
