Former DMK MLA M. Appavu, who has legally challenged the victory of his AIADMK rival from the Radhapuram constituency in the recent Assembly elections, has complained to Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni of discrepancies and violation of established norms in safekeeping of electronic voting machines used in the constituency.
Mr. Appavu, in his complaint, reiterated his charge that the counting of votes polled in Radhapuram constituency, undertaken at the Government College of Engineering, was “purposely derailed” in the 19th round of counting, besides abruptly stopping counting of postal ballots.
“While the winner I.S. Inbadurai of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had polled only 3,192 votes in the 19th round, it was recorded in the poll records and also written on the blackboard as 3,242 votes – a difference of 50 votes,” he claimed.
Since the DMK agents present there objected to it, the police evicted them from the counting station.
“Paramilitary personnel forcibly threw me out of the counting station. Even as I was staging a dharna outside the counting cubicle in protest against my eviction, the votes polled in two subsequent rounds were hurriedly counted and the officials recorded the votes bagged by Mr. Inbadurai in the 20th and the 21st rounds as 3,659 and 2,157 votes, though he had polled only 3,526 and 1,992 votes respectively. Even after I had won the election by a margin of 599 votes, the Returning Officer Muruganantham declared that Mr. Inbadurai had won by a margin of 49 votes,” Mr. Appavu claimed.
After Mr. Appavu filed an election petition in the Madras High Court challenging Mr. Inbadurai’s election, the EVMs and the control units used in Radhapuram constituency were shifted to a safer place on Wednesday in the presence of Tirunelveli Collector M. Karunakaran.
“As I was in Chennai in connection with this case, I deputed two advocates on my behalf to be present at the spot even, as the EVMs were shifted to the Agriculture Regulatory Market Godown at Ramaiyanaptti. They (advocates) had found that 29 control units did not carry the authorised tags and there was no seal in six other control units. There was no seal in eight steel trunks containing 79 control units even as two more control units had been kept outside the steel trunks. When the advocates sought explanation from Mr. Muruganantham in this connection, he just asked the lawyers to send their grievances to the District Collector by registered post and left the spot,” Mr. Appavu said.
Postal ballots
Mr. Appavu also alleged that postal ballots polled in his favour had been treated as ‘invalid’ as the ballots had been attested by heads of middle schools, who are not gazetted officers as argued by Mr. Muruganantham.
Says he and his agents were evicted from counting station when they objected to discrepancies
