BJP moves HC seeking to quash civic bypoll notification

BJP today moved the Madras High Court seeking to quash the notification by Tamil Nadu State Election Commission for local body bypolls for the seats fallen vacant in Corporations and Municipalities in which AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa is the respondent.
The petition is expected to come up tomorrow for hearing.
In the petition, K Sarvothaman, BJP headquarters Secretary, alleged the State Election Commission (SEC) and other government authorities were misusing their official powers.
He submitted the SEC originally issued a poll notification on August 6, 2014 to conduct the bypolls and it was stated that the last date for filing nominations was on or before August 13 and the polling date was scheduled for September 18.

However, later the SEC issued another notification that the polls were postponed citing that the electoral list was not ready in Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.
"It is surprising that even without the verification of voters list, SEC issued the poll notification on August 6", he contended.

Another poll notification was issued on August 28 and due to short span of time, major political parties decided to boycott the bypolls, though BJP decided to contest in 122 posts out of the 281 vacant posts.
He alleged in his petition that most of the BJP candidates were threatened "in collusion with Jayalalithaa." In certain cases, the nominations of some BJP candidates were declared as withdrawn without their knowledge, he submitted.

Out of 122 candidates announced by BJP, only the nominations of 83 were accepted and rejected the rest by the officials, he charged.
"The ruling party men who are in power indulged in all sorts of illegal activities and criminal acts with a view to preventing opposition party candidates from filing nominations", the petitioner contended and prayed to quash the bypoll notification and sought an interim injunction restraining the SEC from conducting the elections.