HC dismisses BJP plea over local body polls

The Madras High Court today dismissed a petition by BJP's Tamil Nadu unit seeking to quash the August 28 last notification of the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct bye-elections for vacant posts in various local bodies on September 18.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.Sathyanarayanan, dismissed the petition filed by Head Quarters Secretary K.Sarvothaman who alleged malpractices in the election process such as rejection of BJP candidates' nomination papers and intimidation in "collusion" with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the ruling AIADMK General Secretary.
Rejecting the plea, the bench said "the state Election Commission is not averse to giving a hearing to the petitioner party in case it wants to point out certain specific issues so that precautionary measures are taken."

The bench directed the SEC that it would take necessary corrective action if the complaints were found to be genuine.
The petitioner submitted that the SEC originally issued a notification on August 6 for the bypolls but postponed it as the electoral roll was not ready in Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.
"It is very shocking and surprising that even without the verification of voters list, the SEC herein issued the election notification," he said.

Because of the short span of time for the bypoll from notification, major political parties in the state decided to boycott the byelections whereas BJP has decided to contest as many as in 122 posts out of the 281 which fell vacant.

He claimed almost all candidates of BJP were threatened to withdraw and in some of the cases candidates were declared as withdrawn without their knowledge.
Only 83 BJP candidates' nominations were accepted and others were rejected for some or other reason. In some cases, candidates were kidnapped or forced to withdraw their nominations, he claimed.