CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday declared null and void the poll victory of P Ravindranath Kumar, son of deposed AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam, in Theni Lok Sabha constituency in 2019.
Justice SS Sundar passed the orders on the election petition filed by P Milany, a local DMK functionary.
The judge has given 30 days time for making an appeal against the order, till then the operation of the order will be put on hold.
The main ground of challenge to the poll victory is the ‘suppression of facts of assets and sources of income’ in the affidavit filed along with the nomination papers for contesting the polls.
Ravindranath Kumar was the lone hand to post victory in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 for AIADMK which lost in all the remaining 38 constituencies in Tamil Nadu.
The petitioner contended that facts of assets, investments, sources of income, shares, financial loans and liabilities were suppressed in the affidavit.
He also argued that the ‘defective affidavit’ was not duly scrutinised by the then Returning Officer of the constituency despite objections were raised during the scrutiny of nomination papers.
Ravindranath Kumar defeated veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister EVKS Elangovan in the polls. The latter was the only candidate in the DMK-led alliance to lose out.
After being elected to Lok Sabha, he had developed a close relationship with the top brass of the BJP in Delhi. When his father was expelled from AIADMK, he too was chucked out of the party.