RK Nagar assembly bypoll: DMK files plea in HC

The DMK today filed a plea in the Madras High Court for an interim injunction restraining the Election Commission of India from announcing or notifying the bypoll schedule for the R K Nagar Assembly constituency here without first carrying out a "purification of voters'" list.
The petition was filed by DMK organisation secretary R S Bharathi.
The petitioner alleged discrepancies in the 'mother roll of voters' of the constituency and sought deletion of "double and multiple entries", names of deceased voters, among others.
After the earlier scheduled bypoll was rescinded, another draft voters' list dated October 3 was published by the Election Commission but this too was also replete with the same number of bogus voters, the petitioner alleged.

The petitioner submitted that they were given many representations about the entries, totalling about 43,861 bogus voters, and sought an interim injunction.
The petitioner also prayed for "purification of voters' list", on the basis of which the bypoll was to be conducted, by deleting these entries.
The high court had last month directed the Election Commission to conduct the bypoll to the constituency, lying vacant following the demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, "preferably" by December 31.
The bypoll, earlier scheduled for April 12 was cancelled by the poll body following allegations of distribution of cash to voters.