Tamilisai Soundarajan moves Madras HC against Kani’s election as MP

Chennai: BJP State President Tamilisai Soundarajan on Monday moved the Madras High Court seeking to declare void the election of Kanimozhi of the DMK as the Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) from Thoothukudi. She has alleged serious discrepancies in all the four nomination affidavits filed by Kanimozhi and said the District Collector, who is also the District Electoral Officer, should have rejected them all on account of flaws on three counts.

The BJP leader, who had lost the April 18 election to Kanimozhi by a huge margin of 3.47 lakh votes, alleged in her petition that Kanimozhi had mentioned in one part of her poll affidavit that her name is enrolled as a voter in Chepauk- Triplicane legislative assembly constituency but in another place in the same affidavit, she had given it as Thoothukudi.

Another flaw related to her declaration that Kanimozhi's husband Aravindhan and son Adithyan do not have the Permanent Account Number (PAN) in India and their income during the last five years has been shown as 'Not Applicable', whereas Kanimozhi should have stated the National Registration Identity Card numbers of both of them along with their income particulars taken from relevant papers from Singapore where they are both citizens.

"By willfully failing to submit information with regard to the tax status of her husband and son in Singapore and the income received by them, the First Respondent (Kanimozhi) has filed a false affidavit which materially affects the result of the election and consequently the failure of the returning officer in accepting the nomination of the First Respondent is improper and he ought to have rejected the same," Tamilisai said in her petition.

As was evident from the details of moveable property, Kanimozhi's son Adithyan has invested substantial amount of money by way of fixed deposit in Indian Bank, R.A.Puram, Chennai and in two banks in Singapore. In such circumstances, it was inconceivable that he does not have a PAN or has not filed income tax returns in India, said Tamilisai, alleging "deliberate suppression of information" by Kanimozhi with regard to PAN as well as the status of income tax returns of Adithyan.

The third accusation related to corrupting of the voters. The BJP leader said Kanimozhi along with the local DMK legislator Anitha Radhakrishnan campaigned in Umarikadu village on March 25, when money was given to the women who performed 'aarathi' for Kanimozhi. News channels had telecast this and the visuals were available on YouTube too. She later learnt that Rs.2,000 was distributed to those women. An FIR was registered against Anitha Radhakrishnan, Kanimozhi and six others in this connection. Another complaint was given by AIADMK MLA Inbadurai to the Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu on March 26, Tamilisai added in her petition that is likely to be taken up by the court in due course of time.

Meanwhile, DMK sources said party's legal experts are examining the petition for devising appropriate response.