Chennai: Election Commission has already begun the process for holding by-elections to R K Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai by December 31 as per the directions of the Madras high court.
With the high court reiterating to the EC on Tuesday that the deadline for holding the polls is December 31, top officials in the poll agency said all efforts are being made to finish the process by the said period.
He also said the final decision on the date of poll would be taken by the CEC and Election Commissioners after they go through the High Court order in detail.
Another official said the EC would take a decision only after going through the judgment in whole. The by-polls to R K Nagar were cancelled in April due to allegations of rampant use of money to bribe voters. The by-polls were necessitated due to the demise of J Jayalalithaa who represented the constituency since 2015.
Meanwhile, Chennai corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan, who is also the district election officer, passed orders to civic officials to circulate the revised draft rolls. In a statement, the district election officer said based on complaints from political parties, corrections were carried in the draft voters' rolls and after scrutiny, 45,819 names have been deleted after serving notices to the electorates.
Of this, 38,319 voters have shifted their residences. During the revision, it was also observed that 3,818 voters were dead and another 3,682 names were found to have been duplicated. All the corrections have been made to the voters roll and the same will be forwarded to the political parties for their reference, the DEO said in a statement.
