Minister's election challenged

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, AUG. 25. A petition challenging the election of the Union Minister, Mr. N.T. Shanmugam, from the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency in September 1999, has been admitted by the Madras High Court.

Mr. Justice P. Sathasivam, who today admitted the petition by the defeated AIADMK candidate, Mr. Mohamed Asif, ordered notice to the Elections department and Election Commission, returnable in six weeks.

The PMK candidate won the election by polling 3,24,547 votes against Mr. Asif who polled 2,98,862 votes. Mr. C.K. Tamizharasan, who contested on the TMC ticket secured 44,551 votes.

In his petition, Mr. Asif contended that Mr. Shanmugam (who contested as PMK candidate on behalf of the DMK-led alliance) and his agents indulged in various irregularities, violating norms, rules and regulations of the Election Commission. Mr. Shanmugam and his agents pumped in crores of rupees for the elections; they transported voters to the polling booths and compelled them to cast their votes in the PMK candidate's favour, which amounted to corrupt practice as per Sec. 124 of the Representation of the Peoples Act; over 2,000 vehicles were used on the polling day, September 11, 1999, the petition alleged.

It added that there was widespread bogus voting by PMK men in many places, such as the Arcottargudisai polling booth, where a DSP intervened to stop the rigging. But in other places, the election and police authorities took no action, because Mr. Shanmugam contested with the support of the ruling parties in the State as well as the Centre.

The petition alleged discrepancies between the votes polled and the votes counted, which, it said, was ``only due to the malpractice committed by Mr. Shanmugam and his agents.'' There was a gap of 25 days between polling and counting, which gave room for malpractice, including tampering with ballot boxes kept in strong rooms.

The petition sought a direction to declare Mr. Shanmugam's election from Vellore constituency as null and void and to set aside the same and a consequential direction that Mr. Asif was duly elected from the constituency.

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