Polls in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur that were earlier scheduled for May 23 have now been further postponed. The Election Commission informed the Madras High Court of this development on Friday and sought time of another three weeks to hold the elections. It will not be held on June 13.

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The Madurai Bench of the Madras High court heard a writ petition by BJP's Thanjavur candidate MS Ramalingam and PMK's Aravakurichi candidate M Baskaran asking for postponement.

A week ago, the election commission had set up a four-member panel, consisting of General Observers, Expenditure Observer, Police Observer and another officer to look into alleged malpractices in the constituencies, besides directing deployment of additional teams to ensure free and fair polls. 

Election officials along with the Enforcement Directorate officials had found Rs 4.67 crore in the house of Anbunathan. Money was also found at a raid at candidate KC Palanisamy's house. Similarly, in Thanjavur, it was found that money to the tune of Rs 1.4 crore had been distributed to voters in 13 wards.

The election commission had asked that additional teams be provided for every 10 polling stations in these two assembly constituencies to monitor their activity for a free and fair election. Counting of votes for the Aravakurichi constituency was supposed to take place on May 25.