Chennai: Pointing out that the relief work due to the disaster caused by Gaja Cyclone is in halfway through, an office bearer of an Farmers Union has approached the Madras high court to forbear the Election Commission of India (ECI) from conducting bye-election in respect of vacancy caused on account of the demise of former DMK President late M.Karunanidhi in Tiruvarur Assembly Constituency in the state of Tamil Nadu.
In his PIL, V. Sathyanarayanan, general secretary of Kaveri Delta Farmers Union also sought to restrain the ECI from issuing Gazette Notification of the Schedule, as stated in the Press Note, for conduct of bye election for filling up the vacancy in Tiruvarur Assembly Constituency.
The PIL is likely to come up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P.Rajamanickam on January 3. Earlier, advocate N. G. R. Prasad, counsel for the petitioner, made a mention before the bench headed by Justice M. Sathyanarayan to take up the PIL in the afternoon itself.
Thereafter, he made a mention before First bench headed by Chief Justice V. K. Tahilramani. After they asked him to file a petition first, the present PIL was filed.
According to petitioner, once the gazette notification was issued on January 3, the model code of conduct will come into force and the ECI will be in charge of the situation. There will be a number of restrictions. As a result, the people in Tiruvarur Constituency will not be able to get the benefit of the ongoing relief work and not able to celebrate the Pongal festival in a free manner with all zeal, he added.
He said the contesting candidates will organize meetings, rallies, campaigning and this will come in the way of organizing various events by the people in furtherance to the Pongal Celebration. Because of this, there was every possibility of clash. It will affect the law and order situations there. The code of conduct imposes lot of conditions and this will affect the normal life of the people in celebrating Pongal, Uzhavar Thirunal festival and number of events organized during that period as per traditional practice.
Further there was every possibility of the contesting candidates and their agents use the situation for distributing freebies under the guise of Pongal gifts. There was every scope of malpractice. Free and Fair election will not be ensured. Seeking the various pros and cons, he prays in all fairness the proposed election should be postponed beyond pongal festival, he added.
He said as of today, there was no gazette publication has been issued. Hence, he was approaching this court with this petition. Further, the polling was said to be held on January 28th. If the schedule was to be notified, then the Republic Day celebrations cannot be done in the usual manner in Tiruvarur district.
Two vacancy arose in the state of Tamil Nadu i.e., one at Thiruparankundram due to the death of late A.K.Bose on August 2, 2018 and another at Tiruvarur Constituency. He failed to understand why the ECI was proposing to hold elections only in Tiruvarur constituency, he added.
