M K Stalin moves Madras HC challenging TVK candidate’s Kolathur election

DMK president M K Stalin has approached the Madras High Court challenging the election of TVK candidate V S Babu from Kolathur, alleging irregularities during EVM verification. He sought 100 per cent VVPAT slip counting and verification of all 286 machines

Chennai: DMK President M K Stalin on Monday filed a petition in the Madras High Court, seeking to declare the election of TVK candidate V S Babu from Kolathur Assembly constituency as void and consequently declare him as duly elected from that constituency.

In his petition, Stalin submitted that after the election was over and results were declared, he had duly nominated senior advocate N R Elango as his authorised representative for checking and verification of the burnt memory/microcontroller in the Control Unit, Ballot Unit and VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) for 14 selected EVM sets about Kolathur constituency.

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During checking and verification by Elango, grave and alarming irregularities came to light. Elango immediately wrote to the District Election Officer informing him of these grave lapses. Without addressing them, the District Election Officer declared that the checking and verification had been carried out successfully and was completed on August 5 in accordance with the prescribed procedures.

On August 6, he wrote to the District Election Officer highlighting the specific failures that had come to light. He emphasised that the certificates issued by the engineer cannot be, and were not, substitutes for technical /failure reports explaining the causes of the failures.

He refused to accept the District Election Officer’s claim that the process had been successfully carried out. Therefore, he has filed the present petition, challenging the order of the District Election Officer. He said the impugned order has been passed mechanically without responding to any of the clarifications sought and objections raised by him through his authorised representative.

He also sought a direction to the authorities to conduct 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips relating to Kolathur Assembly constituency and the checking and verification of all 286 machines deployed in Kolathur constituency.