The Election Commission of India’s decision to reject the nomination paper filed by film actor Vishal for the RK Nagar by-election scheduled for December 21 has stirred a hornet’s nest in Tamil Nadu politics.
Vishal’s nomination was initially rejected by the Election Commission on Tuesday during scrutiny following depositions made by two persons from the group of10 which had proposed the name of the actor. Deepan and Sumathy who had proposed the name of Vishal met the Returning Officer on Tuesday and claimed that their signatures in the nomination papers were forged as they had not signed for the actor.
But by 8.30 pm, the actor and his team had met the electoral officers and had an argument with them. The candidate himself tweeted after the meeting that his nomination paper was accepted. “After much struggle, my nomination for the RK Nagar election is finally accepted. Truth always triumphs,” tweeted Vishal.
But the statement released by Velusamy,the returning officer late Tuesday night said that he was convinced that Deepan and Sumathy had not signed the nomination papers and the tape of the telephonic conversation submitted by Vishal claiming that the duo were coerced to depose before the returning officer was not convincing. “I conclude that the nomination of Vishal Krishna filed in seral number 72 is rejected upon my summary enquiry,” said Velusamy in his release late Tuesday nght.
The decision of the Election Commission has been widely criticised by all parties in the State barring the AIADMK and the BJP. The DMK working president MK Stalin demanded the immediate removal of the returning officer as well as the Chief Electoral officer of Tamil Nadu. His close aide M Subramanian MlA charged that the decision of the Election Commission to reject Vishal’s nomination was akin to the murder of democracy.
The CPI(M), the CPI and the VCK criticised the action of the Election Commission. “It looks like as if the authorities in New Delhi are deciding who should contest and win elections in Tamil Nadu,” said R Mutharasan, CPI secretary.
The rejection of Vishal’s nomination papers assume significance in the backdrop of observation by a section of people that he was a decoy candidate fielded by the Opposition to split the Telugu speaking votes in the constituency. Both Vishal and Madhusudanan are Telugu speaking candidates and the RK Nagar constituency has a considerable Telugu speaking population.
T S Venkatesh, columnist and political observer said the stance of the opposition was strange. “I wonder whether they would have criticised the Election Commission had it rejected the nomination paper filed by Madhusudanan, the AIADMK candidate. We also saw the rejection of Deepa Patrick Madhavan’s nomination on Tuesday. But no one challenged that decision,” said Venkatesh.
The rejection of Vishal’s nomination will result in RK Nagar witnessing a triangular contest between Madhusudanan (AIADMK), Marutha Hanesh (DMK), and TTV Dinakaran (Independent who is the nephew of the jailed VK Sasikala). Though the BJP too has a candidate, he is not expected to make any impact in the by-election. Thursday is the last date for withdrawal of nomination.