The Madras high court today dismissed the home minister's plea against petition by defeated AIADMK candidate challenging his election to Lok Sabha.
The Madras high court on Thursday dismissed the petition filed by union home minister P Chidambaram that sought the dismissal of an election petition challenging his election to Lok Sabha from Sivaganga constituency in the 2009 general elections.
The petition challenging Chidambaram’s election was filed by RS Raja Kannappan, the AIADMK candidate who lost by a margin of 3,354 votes.
Chidambaram’s contention was that the petition filed by Kannappan had certain defects and it should not be entertained by the court.
But Justice K Venkataraman who heard Chidambaram's plea said that the defects pointed out by the later were not defects which are not curable. This does not warrant dismissal of the election petition,” said the justice.
Kannappan had alleged in his petition that Chidambaram's election 'deserved' to be declared void due to 'manipulation' of votes and 'corrupt practices' committed by him, his election agents and others, with his consent.
The case shot into national prominence when Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner asking him to appoint Data Entry Operators of integrity and verify their credentials before assigning them to counting of votes for the elections held to the state assembly on April 13.
She said that during counting of votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, blatant irregularities were committed by the DEOs in Sivaganga to further the poll prospects of P Chidambaram.
Jayalalithaa said in the letter that 3400 votes polled by Raja Kannappan from 11 polling stations were entered in favour of Chidambaram and 1617 votes polled by the later were entered in favour of the AIADMK candidate.
She said this was done by the DEOs at the behest of the DMK government and no action was taken against the operators who indulged in such grave offences.
Chidambaram was declared elected by a margin of 3354 votes. He polled 3,34, 348 votes while Kannappan came a close second by polling 3,30,994 votes. Interestingly, many national TV channels flashed news that Chidambaram lost from Sivaganga which was subsequently
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