Madras HC sets aside election of AK Bose from Tirupparangundram constituency

CHENNAI: In yet another major set back to the ruling AIADMK, the Madras High Court on Friday set aside the election of AIADMK candidate AK Bose (since died) from Tirupparangundram Assembly constituency.

Justice P Velmurugan, who declared the election as null and void, however, declined to declare Dr P Saravanan, the petitioner, as duly elected.

In his 140 page judgment delivered in the evening, Justice Velmurugan said that the attestation of the thumb impression, said to be affixed by former Chief Minister and party general secretary J Jayalalithaa, by Dr Balaji is not valid.

The defeated DMK candidate Saravanan had filed the petition challenging the election of Bose in the elections held in November 2016.

He contended that the left thumb impression, alleged to have been affixed by Jayalalithaa, had been obtained in Forms A and B without her consent and knowledge while she was unconscious, with the connivance of the doctors who had attended on her at the Apollo Hospitals, where she underwent treatment.

The decision of the EC in accepting the nomination papers of Bose had materially affected his election prospects, he had contended.