The Election Commission has sought a report on electoral malpractice, including booth capturing, in Nathamedu, which falls under the Dharmapuri Parliamentary constituency. The constituency, incidentally, has recorded the highest turnout in the Lok Sabha election in the State.
In the report ‘Nathamedu makes a mockery of democracy’, The Hindu on Friday exposed how supporters of the PMK, whose youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss contested from Dharmapuri, cast multiple votes after intimidating the presiding officer. At a press conference in Chennai, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said, “Yesterday, some political parties had raised the issue with us over phone and it has been published in the media too. We have sought a special report from the DEO [District Electoral Officer].”
Nathamedu falls under the Pappiredddipadi Assembly constituency, where a bypoll was held.
Stalin’s charge
Leader of the Opposition and DMK president M.K. Stalin charged that the incident in Nathamedu proved that the police were hand-in-glove with those who cast multiple votes.
About incidents in various parts of the State where names of voters were missing from the electoral roll, Mr. Sahoo said: “There were complaints of some voters’ names missing in some places. We had conducted special camps on 10 days for addition, deletion and correction of names in the electoral rolls.” The Commission had sought a report from the DEO on this, he added.
