The Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to Member of Parliament P. Raveendranath Kumar, son of Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, on an election petition filed by a voter challenging his election from the Theni Parliamentary constituency.
Justice M.S. Ramesh ordered notices, returnable by August 29, also to losing candidates E.V.K.S. Ilangovan of the Congress and Thanga Tamilsevan, who contested the elections on an Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam ticket, but subsequently joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
P. Milany, a 38-year-old mechanical engineer from Palanichettipatti in Theni Taluk, filed the election petition, under Secion 81 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, accusing the returned candidate’s father of having misused the government machinery to get his son elected from the constituency.
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He also alleged that Mr. Kumar had suppressed his shareholding in a private firm, Vani Fabrics Limited, in his affidavit filed before contesting the election.
“On April 7, 2017 when I was standing near Thendral Nagar (in Bodi Assembly constitutency), I saw poor village women taking identical green colour saris imprinted with two leaves symbol... Since, they appeared very poor and innocent village folks, I asked them why and how they had identical saris in their hands.
“They informed me that the candidate/third respondent’s brother is distributing saris with ₹1000 each to them to cast vote for them as advance gift at Bhasker Kalyanamandapam in Thendral Nagar, which materially affected the true result of the election,” the election petition filed through advocate V. Arun read. He wondered why the Election Commission of India did not rescind the election notification issued for the Theni parliamentary constituency, as it did in the case of Vellore constituency despite the corrupt practices having taken place so blatantly.
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