R.K.Nagar by-poll: Actor Vishal's nomination accepted, Deepa's rejected

In a sudden turn of events, the Election Commission on Tuesday accepted the nomination of actor Vishal Krishna to contest the Dec 21, 2017 by-election to the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency.

"My nomination has been accepted. I thank the Election Commission. The Returning Officer has done what has to be done," Vishal, as he is popularly known, told media.

The poll body had earlier rejected his nomination as one of the proposers had said they had not proposed Vishal but her names were included in the actor's nomination paper.

Vishal submitted a recorded conversation with a person named Velu, said to be relative of the woman who had proposed his candidature.

As per the phone recording, Velu told Vishal that a woman in his family was threatened to give a letter to the poll body stating that she did not sign the nomination form.

"The audio recording that you all heard is true," Vishal told reporters.

The Election Commission officials had earlier said that the nomination papers filed by actor Vishal had inconsistencies.

However the poll body has rejected nomination form filed by late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa's niece J.Deepa, while accepting the nomination papers filed by candidates belonging to the ruling AIADMK (E.Madhusudhanan), DMK (N.Marudhu Ganesh), the Bharatiya Janata Party (K.Nagarajan) and over 50 independents.

Deepa's nomination papers were rejected as several columns were left blank.

A total of 145 persons had filed their nomination papers.

The last date for the withdrawal of the candidature is December 7.

The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant following the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016.

--IANS

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