Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K. V. Thangkabalu emerged as the Congress candidate for the Mylapore Assembly constituency, after the nomination papers of his wife and official candidate Jayanthi Thangkabalu were rejected by the Returning Officer on Monday.
Mr. Thangkabalu had filed his nomination as a ‘dummy candidate' and it was accepted, while his wife's papers were not.
“Ms. Jayanthi had not signed the nomination forms (2B forms). Therefore, her nomination has been rejected,” said Returning Officer Innocent Divya. Ms. Divya confirmed that the nomination papers of the dummy candidate (Mr. Thangkabalu) were found to be in order and were accepted.
However, Ms. Jayanthi had signed the mandatory affidavit accompanying the nomination papers.
Corporation Commissioner and District Election Officer D. Karthikeyan said, “I conducted a thorough enquiry and saw the video clip of filing of nomination. Whatever the RO has done is right.”
Talking to reporters outside the Mylapore Tahsildar's office, the TNCC president said the returning officer had agreed that all documents were in place at the time of filing of nomination by his wife. All of a sudden, the RO had rejected the nomination, saying a few documents were not signed, he said.
Later in the afternoon, Ms. Jayanthi's son submitted a petition to the RO against the rejection of his mother's nomination. The returning officer forwarded it to the Chief Electoral Officer. Mr. Thangkabalu said he would take up the issue with the CEO.
S. Mangala Raj, Chennai South District president, who proposed Ms. Jayanthi's nomination, said he had wished to be a dummy candidate and asked Mr. Thangkabalu whether he could file his nomination as a back-up.
“Mr. Thangkabalu told me that he himself will file as the dummy candidate as it was inconsequential,” Mr. Raj said.
The development came in the backdrop of a series of protests by sections of the Congress against the candidacy of Ms. Jayanthi. Protesters had gathered outside his house and even burnt his effigy a few days ago.
Nagapattinam Staff Reporter writes :
The nomination papers of PMK's official candidate for the Vedaranyam seat was rejected during the scrutiny held on Monday.
N. Sathasivam's nomination was rejected on the ground that he continued to hold office of profit with the State government by way of contract interests with works taken up locally. Therefore, discrepancies had crept into disclosed income. However, the nomination of party's dummy candidate R. Chinnathurai's has been accepted.
Seventy-two nominations were accepted and twenty-five rejected. Of the total 97 nominations filed for the six constituencies, 72 were accepted.
