Chennai, Dec 6 (PTI) Actor Vishal Krishna today met thechief electoral officer and urged him to reconsider rejectionof his nomination papers for the December 21 bypoll to theRadhakrishnan Nagar here.
The actor also sought to raise the matter with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and President Ramnath Kovind's officethrough the twitter handle.
The vaccancy was caused following the death of then ChiefMinister Jayalalithaa on December 5, last year.
"To the people, I look upto, Hon @narendramodi & Hon@rashtrapatibhvn... I am Vishal,I hope u r aware of watshappening in the RK Nagar Election process in Chennai." "My nomination was accepted & later rejected. Totallyunfair. I bring this to your notice & I hope justiceprevails," he said in the tweet.
The combative actor also said he planned to meet TamilNadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit to lodge a "complaint," onthe matter.
The actor-producer met Tamil Nadu Chief ElectoralOfficer Rajesh Lakhoni at the Secretariat here and later saidhe had submitted a written complaint detailing yesterday'sevents that led to the ultimate rejection of his nominationpapers.
"People know what happened yesterday. They know how arejected application was reconsidered before being rejectedagain. I have submitted a complaint to him (Lakhoni) on allthat happened," Vishal told reporters.
Yesterday, the office of the Returning Officer (RO)for RK Nagar bypoll witnessed drama when RO K Velusamyrejected Vishal's nomination, prompting the actor to stage adharna.
Vishal had later claimed his nomination was accepted, and"thanked" the EC for the same.
However, the RO, late in the night, said Vishal'snomination had been rejected after a summary enquiry.
In his order, he said only eight valid proposals had beenreceived for the actor as against the required ten.
Two among the 10 proposers - Sumathy and Deepan-appeared before him in person and claimed it wasnot their valid signatures (in the nomination papers), the ROsaid.
"Sumathy and Deepan appeared before me in person andsubmitted a written representation stating that they had notproposed the nomination of Vishal Krishna," Velusamy said.
They submitted that their signatures had been forged,the order read.
The veracity of an audio clip submitted by Vishal thatSumathy appeared before the RO on "coercion" by some personsand not on her own volition could not be ascertained, theelection official said.
Vishal said even if there were any discrepancies, thecandidate should be given 24 hours, apparently indicating timeshould have been given for his response.
The electoral officials "should reconsider rejectionof nomination," he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters at his residence, Vishaldenied he was being 'propped' up by DMK, Kamal Haasan orsidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.
The 40 year-old actor said he wanted to contest as a'representative' of the people. PTI SATVS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.