The Election Commission has declared them winners in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. But the opponents are not ready to take things that easy.
Petitions challenging the election of Union Minister M K Azhagiri, former Union Minister and leader of DMK Parliamentary party T R Baalu and AIADMK MP P Kumar were filed in the Madras High Court on June 29, seeking to declare the elections as null and void.
Charging Azhagiri, son of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, with bribing voters of Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, losing CPI(M) candidate P Mohan, in his petition, sought a direction to declare him elected instead.
Stating that police had registered a case based on complaints that Azhagiri had distributed money to bribe voters, Mohan alleged that about 70 per cent of voters in the constituency had been induced by the Minister through persons acting as his agents with his consent and knowledge.
Mohan also accused the State government PRO of abusing his official position and acting as an agent for Azhagiri. Challenging the election of Baalu from Sriperumbudur Parliamentary constituency, PMK candidate A K Moorthy claimed there was a contradiction in the total number of votes polled in EVMs and official details of Assembly segment-wise votes polled.
Claiming that votes polled in EVMs of six assembly segments comprising the constituency were 7,96,461, he said the official document of Assembly segment-wise total of EVMs showed only 7,93,597 votes had been registered, indicating a difference of 2,864 votes.
Moorthy also contended that there were numerous contradictions in details on dispatch of EVMs and their actual use. He claimed that EVMs used were found to be either doctored or defective as they never showed correct particulars. ‘This has materially affected the result of the election in so far as the returned candidates is concerned,’ he said.
Moorthy further alleged that Baalu had printed over 11.92 lakh booklets at a cost of over Rs 2.38 crore, containing glossy pictures of DMK leaders and a voters-slip with the voters name, thus violating section 77 of RPA. Moorthy had lost by a margin of 25,024 votes. An independent candidate P Nagarajan also challenged the election of Baalu.
Alleging improper inclusion of votes by wrong statements prepared from EVMs, Sarubala R Thondaiman, the losing Congress candidate from Tiruchi Parliamentary constituency, sought to declare election of AIADMK’s P Kumar as ‘illegal, null and void’.
Sarubala claimed that she had led in all segments as per official details furnished for each Assembly segment making up the Lok Sabha constituency but the final tally showed that Kumar had secured 70,949 votes in Srirangam segment as against 50,767 polled by her.
She said her election agent had drawn the attention of poll officials of the ‘discrepancies’ in votes polled in the segment and had requested the Returning Officer to recount and re-total the votes. However, the request was ignored.
So far, the election of six of the 39 victorious candidates have been challenged with the filing of as many election petitions in the Madras High Court. This includes top guns like Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers MK Azhagiri, the elder son of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
Others, who face a challenge to their election, are Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Jagathrakshakan (Arakkonam), former Union Minister T R Baalu (DMK) and film actor J K Ritheesh (DMK). The election of P Kumar from Tiruchi constituency on an AIADMK ticket too has been questioned by former mayor of Tiruchi and losing candidate Sarubala R Thondaiman (Congress).
Three separate election petitions challeging the election of Azhagiri, Baalu and Kumar were filed on June 29. “More petitions are expected, as the mandatory 45-day limitation period expires,” said a court official. Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act mandates that any election could be challenged if a petition is filed within 45 days of the declaration of results. The petitions, which are yet to be admitted, are likely to be posted before separate benches.
In his election petition, P Mohan, CPM candidate from Madurai, alleged that Azhagiri and his men had bribed or sought to woo at least 70 per cent of the electorate with financial inducements. “Besides bribing voters, DMK cadres paid Rs 500 each to women who performed aarathi for Azhagiri,” he said. “Free dhotis and sarees too were distributed in many villages,” he claimed.
(ANI)
