Illegal voting held in village to contest civic body polls

Aballot box with 134 ballot papers were seized by revenue and police official from Sumaithangi village on Wednesday, where illegal voting was being held to select a candidate for contesting in the local body elections inKalari village.

Officials said the village leaders wanted to send one person to contest thepresidentship of Kilari panchayat from their village.

But four people had expressed their desire to contest for the post from the village, they said.

They said if four people from Sumaithangi village contested, then the person from the village would lose the chance of winning the presidentship of theKalari panchayat, which is the mother village of Sumaithangi village.

The village elders made a novel suggestion to prepare ballot papers with the names of thefour contestants willing to contest, and elect one person to be sent as a candidate during the forthcominglocal body elections.

They had printed 465 ballot papers (number of voters in the village) and held the illegal election.

On a tip-off, the revenue officials, including block development officer Ramesh Kumar and Tahsildar Veeraraj, rushed to the spot and seized the ballot box (a sealed mud pot)and ballot papers since such an election goes against the state election commission rules and people's representative rules.

The Kalari panchayatcomes under SC (General) category village.

While Kalari is themother village of the panchayat, the villages attached to it included Sumaithangi, Anakudi, Mela Sippai, the officials said.

The election was held illegally and they would take action against those responsible for it, said the officials.