Madras High Court. (File photo)
Madras High Court. (File photo)

Madras High Court directs EC to conduct RK Nagar bypoll by December 31

The constituency fell vacant after the death of sitting member and then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on December 5 last.

CHENNAI: Reiterating its earlier stand, the first bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission to conduct the by-poll to RK Nagar constituency before December 31. “It is expected that the ECI will announce a date at the earliest and conduct elections within December 31 as directed in order dated September 18,”the bench said while treating as closed a PIL from DMK organising secretary R S Bharathi.

EC counsel Niranjan Rajagopal submitted that 100% verification had been completed by 256 booth level officers and checked by 25 supervisors. Cursory verification was done by Assistant Electoral Registration Officer. Deletion of 45,819 voters was done due to migration of urban public and also due to death. Recording the submissions, the bench directed the EC to upload all this in its website by tomorrow.
The bench also rejected the EC apprehension that there was a possibility of the candidates and their supporters bribing voters if polling was held by December 31, in view of festivals like Ramzan, Christmas and Pongal.

No DMK hurdle

SENIOR counsel P Wilson on Tuesday assured the Madras HC that his client N Maruthu Ganesh, DMK candidate for RK Nagar constituency, would not press his plea for restraining EC from announcing the election schedule.

Recording the submission, the first bench held that pendency of the PIL would not stand in the way of EC announcing dates.

45,819 Voters deleted due to death, migration
256 booth level officers undertook verification

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