Chennai: On the day of scrutiny of nominations, it’s was rap on the knuckles for the state election commission with Madras high court pointing out series of flaws by the commission. For poll officials and candidates who had spent their time and money, the news came as bolt from the blue. Most of the women candidates in Central and South Chennai with teary eyes called off their campaign on Tuesday. For some others, the news came as a short-term respite. For voters, the elections will now get delayed and babus can pickle administrative files citing model code of conduct.
The delay in civic election means that there will be no new developments at ward and panchayat levels. Both urban and rural local bodies will remain headless at least for another month with extended model code affecting public.
According to highly placed government officials, the commission made a series of flaws giving elbow space for the DMK to move the case legally. Delay in declaring the seats reserved for women, delay in notifying the poll schedule, goof up with the reservation policy while allocating seats for scheduled tribe, lack of identity and stature to function on its own and failure to keep the media and the political parties posted on the election developments were the factors that made matters worse for the commis-sion.
It should be noted that the legal wing of DMK had been exercising the same vigor and energy challenging the poll officials be it the recently concluded Assembly polls or the awaited civic polls. DMK leader M. K. Stalin in fact exposed the public election authority by introducing the voters in a public meeting, who were declared dead as per the voters roll. He further went to embarrass, chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni, but the election commission of India had some system in place, to earn the credentials from both the court and the public, unlike the state election commission.
