Election petition against CPIM MLA closed

A petition challenging the election of the CPI-M candidate from Periyakulam constituency in the 2011 elections lapsed today with the Madras High Court closing it as being infructuous in view of issuance of notification for the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
As the tenure of the present assembly has ended with a fresh notification issued for the 2016 elections, nothing survived in the election petition filed by DMK's losing candidate Anbazhagan challenging the election of A Lazar of CPI-M, Justice T Mathivanan ruled.
Anbazhagan had challenged Lazar's election on the grounds that Lazar was a Dalit Christian and hence not eligible to contest from Periyakulam reserved for Dalits.

R Vaigai, senior counsel for Lazar, however, had argued that the MLA belonged to a Hindu Dalit family which named the child as Lazar as an expression of gratitude to a tea estate officer who was a Christian.
She also pointed out that several other family members of Lazar family still had Hindu names.
Lazar is bracing for re-election from the same constituency in Theni district with the party fielding him yet again.