After day-long twists and turns, the election authority rejected late on Tuesday actor Vishal Krishna’s nomination for the December 21 bypoll to the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency in Chennai.
According to the returning officer, the nomination filed by Vishal (as he is popularly known) was rejected as two of the proposers had said they had not proposed the actor’s name.
The poll body said a candidate must to be proposed by 10 persons, but in the case of Vishal only eight valid proposers had endorsed his candidature.
An official said two among the 10 proposers, Sumathy and Deepan, appeared before him in person and claimed that it was not their valid signatures (in the nomination papers).
“Therefore, I conclude that the nomination of Vishal Krishna is rejected upon my summary enquiry,” K Velusamy said in the order which was circulated to media.
Earlier in the day, the poll body had rejected Vishal’s nomination forcing the actor to protest on the road. Subsequently, Vishal submitted a recorded conversation with a person named Velu, said to be the relative of a woman who had proposed his candidature.
In the purported phone recording, Velu told Vishal that the woman was threatened to give a letter to the poll body stating that she did not sign the nomination form.
{{/usCountry}}In the purported phone recording, Velu told Vishal that the woman was threatened to give a letter to the poll body stating that she did not sign the nomination form.
{{/usCountry}}Later after meeting the Election Commission, Vishal told the media: “My nomination has been accepted. I thank the Election Commission. The returning officer has done what has to be done.”
“The audio recording that you all heard is true,” he told reporters.
Referring to the audio clip furnished by Vishal, the returning officer said the veracity of the person speaking therein could not be ascertained.
The poll body also rejected the nomination form filed by late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s niece J Deepa but accepted the nomination papers filed by candidates belonging to the ruling AIADMK (E Madhusudhanan), DMK (N Marudhu Ganesh), the Bharatiya Janata Party (K Nagarajan) as well as over 50 independents.
Deepa’s nomination papers were rejected as several columns were left blank.
A total of 145 people had filed their nomination papers of that 72 nominations have been accepted and 73 have been rejected. The last date for the withdrawal of the candidature is December 7.
The RK Nagar seat fell vacant following the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016.