Tamil Nadu Official Admits Tampering With Civic Poll Result To Favour DMK Candidate

The Returning Officer attached to T Kallupatti panchayat in Madurai district admitted he had changed the civic poll result for Ward 10 there in favour of the DMK candidate due to the pressure exerted by the local ruling party functionaries.

The Returning Officer (RO) attached to T Kallupatti panchayat in Madurai district on Monday admitted he had changed the civic poll result for Ward 10 there in favour of the DMK candidate due to the pressure exerted by the local ruling party functionaries.

The RO made the admission when a PIL petition from R Palaniselvi (40), an independent candidate, challenging the declaration of the RO made on February 22 came up for further hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, today.

According to the petitioner Palaniselvi, she and her opponent R Subbulakshmi of the DMK had secured an equal number of votes in the elections held during the election held on February 19. Hence, a lot was conducted to decide the issue, which was videographed.

Though the lot went in her favour, the election officer declared Subbulakshmi as elected. Hence, the present petition to quash the declaration made by the election officer on February 22 as illegal and consequently to declare her as the successful candidate.