EC appoints former IRS officer as spl expenditure observer for Vellore LS bypoll

Former IRS officer D Murlikumar was on Tuesday appointed as special expenditure observer for the August 5 bypoll to Vellore Lok Sabha seat, where the election was earlier countermanded due to excess use of money power.

Official sources in the Election Commission Tuesday said Murlikumar is a former director general of Income Tax, Chennai.

Polling for the Lok Sabha seat was scheduled for April 18, along with the other constituencies of Tamil Nadu, but was cancelled on April 16 following the recovery of a huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader.

A government notification rescinding the polls had said the EC was fully satisfied that the current electoral process in Vellore has been seriously vitiated on account of unlawful activities of certain candidates and some workers of the political party.

It had said that in the considered opinion of the EC, going ahead with the poll process in Vellore in such a vitiated atmosphere would severely jeopardise the conduct of a free-and-fair election.

This was perhaps the first time that the election to a Lok Sabha constituency was cancelled over use of money power. The bypoll to the RK Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu was cancelled in April, 2017, following a similar seizure of huge cash, allegedly meant for bribing voters.

The counting of votes will be on August 9. Once the result is announced, Lok Sabha will have its full strength of 543 elected members. There is a provision to nominate two members from the Anglo-Indian community.