Repolling was today held at one of the booths in Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency here, being contested by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, where by-election was held on Saturday.
Repolling in Booth No 181 was announced by the Election Commission yesterday after it was found that the Presiding Officer allowed some voters ‘not duly enrolled in the electoral roll’.
Chief Electoral Officer Sandeep Saxena yesterday said that “the Election Commission has stated that its observer deputed in the constituency reported that the presiding officer of polling Station No 181 in the constituency allowed some of the voters who were not duly enrolled in the electoral roll.”
“The Election Commission directed that the poll taken on June 27 at the polling station 181 has been ‘vitiated’ within the meaning of section 58(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” he had said.
However, CPI, which had filed a complaint with Election Commission on Saturday, alleging electoral malpractices by ruling AIADMK, dubbed the action as ‘eyewash’.
The party’s candidate C Mahendran said CPI in its complaint had alleged that electoral malpractices were found in about 50 booths but “repolling has been done only in this booth and it is an eyewash.”
Jayalalithaa and Mahendran are facing each other in this North Chennai constituency even as 26 other candidates including social activist, ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy alias KR Ramaswamy are also in the fray.
The by-election was necessitated following AIADMK’s P Vetrivel vacating the seat in May, apparently to enable Jayalalithaa seek re-election. She has to fulfil the constitutional requirement of getting elected as MLA within six months of becoming Chief Minister.
She returned to the top post on May 23 after being acquitted in a disproportionate assets case by the Karnataka High Court. She had been convicted in the case in September last by a trial court in Bengaluru.