CHENNAI: The returning officer for North Chennai was in for a rough day on Monday, as little did he expect candidates to argue who would get to file nomination first. While AIADMK and DMK argued that their respective candidate should be allowed to file the nomination first, the BJP candidate who was waiting outside raised slogans with his supporters urging the Election Commission to take action against the Dravidian parties.
According to the ledger at the office, AIADMK candidate ‘Royapuram’ Mano had reached to file the nomination before DMK candidate Kalanidhi Veeraswamy. Mano was issued token seven while Veeraswamy was token eight. However, Veeraswamy’s wife Jayanthi, who was a dummy candidate was issued token two.
The trouble began when Mano’s turn came up. An argument broke out after minister P K Sekar Babu and AIADMK leader D Jayakumar entered the returning officer’s room and demanded to allow their respective candidate to file papers first. DMK claimed they should be allowed to file first as they were issued token before AIADMK.
According to sources, both the parties wanted to file their nomination at 12.30pm, but they missed it during the argument. After two hours, the returning officer allowed the AIADMK candidate to file papers first after checking ledger. The DMK candidate filed nomination next, followed by BJP.