CHENNAI: Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has told the Madras High Court that stopping the bye-elections in five Assembly constituencies deprives lakhs of people the opportunity to air their interest, cause and grievance with their elected representatives for an indefinite period of time.
Vijay made the submission in a counter-affidavit filed before the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan, recently, in response to the writ petition filed by advocate K Venkatachalapathy, based on which the court has temporarily stayed the bypolls.
The court restrained the Election Commision of India from holding bye-elections to Tiruchy-East, which has fallen vacant after Vijay resigned, and Viralimalai, Karur, Perundurai and Ambasamudram constituencies, whose four AIADMK MLAs resigned after cross-voting and later joined TVK.
The TVK leader said the petitioner is only seeking to protect the interest of the election petitioners. In the event of the election of the winners being declared void, the runners-up (petitioners) would be declared elected under Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act. Such a relief would only protect the interest of one individual who did not get elected, the counter-affidavit said.