A writ petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Returning Officer of the Aravakurichi Assembly constituency to reject the nomination of former Minister V. Senthil Balaji, who had recently shifted loyalty from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The petition filed by A.P. Geetha, 54, women’s wing secretary of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi (DMSK), has been listed for hearing before Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad on Saturday, a working day for the court. She contended that the former Minister should not be allowed to contest in elections because he had allegedly indulged in electoral malpractices in 2016.
According to the petitioner, the general election scheduled to be held for the Aravakurichi constituency, along with 233 other constituencies in the State in May 2016, got cancelled due to large-scale complaints of distribution of cash for votes when the former Minister contested in the constituency as an AIADMK candidate.
When the election for the constituency was held in November 2016, the petitioner contested along with Mr. Balaji who emerged victorious. She filed an election petition in the High Court to declare his victory as null and void and the case was pending in the court since he had obtained a stay order from the Supreme Court.
Pointing out that Mr. Balaji got disqualified from the post of MLA, necessitating a byelection in the constituency, the petitioner said that he had now switched over to the DMK and submitted his nomination to contest the byelection. She insisted that the nomination of a “tainted” candidate like him should not be accepted.