CHENNAI: A PIL petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking to stay the bye-elections to Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies scheduled on October 6.
The petition, filed by a Chennai-based advocate K Suthan, said S Jayakumar (Perundurai), Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), P Sathyabama (Tiruppur), Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram), C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai) and M R Vijayabhaskar (Karur) had resigned soon after they were elected to the Assembly in the April polls, thereby necessitating the bypolls.
Bye-elections were announced only in two constituencies–Madurantakam and Dharapuram–as others are embroiled in election petitions, the petition noted.
Stating that an MLA’s right to resign from the post cannot be questioned, the petitioner said, yet, a reasonable safeguard must be brought into the law so that the financial consequences (poll expenditures) of the resignation are not forced upon the taxpayers.
He said a mechanism should be created to make the MLA– who resigns soon after being elected and then contests the resulting bye-election or another subsequent election–furnish an “election expenditure security” that is commensurate with the actual public expenditure incurred.
This should be made a precondition for accepting the nomination papers for contesting the polls, he urged. He also said if an elected representative resigns purely for personal or political reasons, he should be barred from contesting the polls for five years.
Stating that such safeguards and restrictions could be created only through appropriate legislations, the petitioner prayed for the court to issue directions in this regard to the centre and the ECI. He sought a stay on the bye-elections until his petition is disposed of and to direct the returning officers of the two constituencies not to accept the nomination papers of the TVK candidates. He also sought to stop the ECI from holding polls to the remaining constituencies.
TVK president and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Saturday appointed Ministers Aadhav Arjuna and K G Arunraj as party in-charge for the bye-elections to Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies respectively. For Madurantakam, Ministers B Rajkumar, K Thennarasu and R Vinoth will serve as joint in-charge, while five others have been appointed deputy in-charge. For Dharapuram, Ministers M Vijay Balaji, C Vijayalakshmi and Logesh Tamilselvan have been appointed joint in-charge. Further, Ministers N Anand, K A Sengottaiyan and C T R Nirmal Kumar have been appointed as election observers to oversee the party’s work in both constituencies.
The CPM and the CPI will announce their stance on the upcoming by-elections to the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies on Sunday after holding consultations with the office-bearers of their respective state councils. While the CPM’s state council is meeting in Tiruchy, the CPI’s state council is scheduled to meet in Chennai.
