HC allows Tamilisai Soundararajan to withdraw election petition

The Madras High Court on Monday allowed a plea by former BJP Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan seeking to withdraw her election petition against DMK MP Kanimozhi in view of her appointment as Telangana governor.

Soundararajan, who lost to DMK candidate Kanimozhi, had challenged her election from the Thoothukudi Parliamentary constituency in the general elections held in April this year.

When petitions filed by her and Santhana Kumar, a voter of Thoothukudi, came up for hearing before Justice S M Subramaniam, the counsel for Soundararajan submitted that she would like to withdraw her petition since she has been appointed to a constitutional post as the Telangana governor.

The judge, who permitted withdrawal of the petition, directed Soundararajan to publish her decision in one English and one Tamil daily and posted the matter for further hearing to November 11.

On a miscellaneous plea filed by Kanimozhi seeking to reject the petition filed by Santhana Kumar, the judge issued a notice to the petitioner and posted the matter for further hearing to October 30.

In her plea, Soundararajan had alleged that Kanimozhi suppressed certain material facts with regard to the income of her husband and her son in the nomination papers.

Soundarajan had lost to Kanimozhi by a margin of over 3.47 lakh votes in the April 18 polls.