Madras HC rejects P Chidambaram's plea in election case

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Thursday rejected P Chidambaram’s, home minister, plea to dismiss an election petition against him.

Raja Kannappan of the AIADMK, who lost the Sivaganga seat in Tamil Nadu to Chidambaram in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, had filed a petition in the high court alleging the home minister had rigged the election. Chidambaram had won by a thin margin of 3,354 votes.

Asking Chidambaram to face the case, justice K Venkataraman, however, gave him some reprieve by striking off a  couple of charges — cash was distributed, voters were intimidated, son Karthi acted as his active agent, and returning officers were “readymade and designed to ensure victory for  Chidambaram”.

Kannappan had alleged these officers were from nationalised banks and that they owed allegiance and loyalty to the minister who held the finance portfolio [Chidambaram was then the finance minister].

Kannappan had said in his petition that votes in his favour were ingeniously added to Chidambaram’s account.

He had accused election officials of “unduly favouring” the minister and not making the votes polled by the candidates in each round public.

J Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK general secretary, told the chief election commissioner in a letter in 2011 that data entry operators (DEO) at Sivaganga had transferred 3,400 votes polled by Kannappan from 11 polling stations in Chidambaram’s favour. And all this was done at the behest of the DMK, which was then in power, she said in her letter.