Chennai: A petition has been filed in Madras high court seeking a direction to Chief Election Commission and Union ministry of law and justice to conduct byelection to RK Nagar Assembly constituency, which remained vacant since death of then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year.
In the PIL, K.K. Ramesh of Madurai submitted that Jayalalithaa was elected from the constituency and following her death the Election Commission of India announced by-poll for the constituency. This was cancelled on April 9, 2017, following irregularities.
The bypoll was cancelled as ECI and other authorities failed to contain the flow of cash for vote by political parties during the electioneering. The non-conduct of byelections to the constituency is injury to the democracy and the society and Election Commission has no courage to conduct elections in a free and fair manner, he said.
Ramesh pointed out that indiscriminate bribing incidents took place during 2016 May general elections. Two major political parties paid bribe ranging from Rs 250 to Rs10,000 to voters and authorities seized Rs 750 crore. EC received large number complaints from 232 constituencies but election was cancelled only in two constituencies of Aravakurichi and Thanjavur.
As per Representation of Peoples Act, if any legislator died, byelection should be conducted within six months, whereas till date EC has not announced bypoll to RK Nagar constituency. He made a representation to EC on July 3, 2017, which had not evoked any response and filed this petition.
