Petitions challenging the election of Union Minister M K Azhagiri, leader of Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam Parliamentary party T R Baalu and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Member of Parliament P Kumar have been filed in the Madras High Court, seeking to declare the poll outcome as null and void.
Charging Azhagiri, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, with bribing voters of the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, Communist Party of India - Marxist candidate P Mohan, who lost the election, on Monday sought a direction to declare him elected instead.
Stating that the police had registered a case based on complaints that Azhagiri had distributed money to bribe voters, Mohan alleged that nearly 70 per cent of voters in the constituency had been induced by the minister, through persons acting as his agents, with his consent and knowledge. He alleged that Azhagiri, using his influence, had ensured that state transport buses plied in specific routes to sway voters.
Mohan also accused the state government's Public Relations Officer of abusing his official position and acting as an agent for Azhagiri.
Challenging the election of Baalu from Sriperumbudur parliamentary constituency, senior Pattali Makkal Katchi member A K Moorthy claimed there was a contradiction in the total number of votes polled in Electronic Voting Machines and official details of assembly segment-wise votes polled.
Claiming that votes polled in EVMs of six assembly segments comprising the constituency were 7,96,461, he said the official document of assembly segment-wise total of EVMs showed only 7,93,597 votes had been registered, indicating a difference of 2,864 votes. Moorthy also contended that there were numerous contradictions in details about the dispatch of EVMs and their actual use.
He claimed that EVMs used were found to be either doctored or defective as they never showed correct particulars. He also alleged that there had been non-compliance of provisions of the Constitution, Representation of the People Act 1951 and the Conduct of Election Rules 1961.
Moorthy further alleged that Baalu had printed over 11.92 lakh booklets at a cost of over Rs 2.38 crore, containing glossy pictures of DMK leaders and a voters-slip with the voters' names, thus violating section 77 of RPA. Moorthy had lost by a margin of 25,024 votes.
An independent candidate P Nagarajan also challenged the election of Baalu.
