CHENNAI: The Madras High Court refused the plea of Parliament member Manickam Tagore of the Congress, seeking to strike down the pleas against him moved by DMDK late leader Vijayakant's son Vijaya Prabhakaran challenging his victory in the Virudhunagar Lok Sabha election.

Justice N Sathish Kumar ordered to frame issues for trial in the election petition preferred by Vijaya Prabhakaran challenging the Congress leader’s election victory, and posted the matter to next week.

Manickam Tagore contested the 2024 general election from Virudhunagar, his sitting seat, while his main challenger was Vijaya Prabhakaran of the DMDK.

After the neck-to-neck contest, Tagore was declared victorious though with a low margin of 4,379 votes. He secured 3,85,256 votes while Vijaya Prabhakaran obtained 3,80,877 votes.

Aggrieved by the loss, Vijaya Prabhakaran moved the election petition seeking to recount all the postal votes polled in Virudhunagar, including the rejected postal ballots. He also sought to recount the polled votes in the electronic voting machines.

Vijaya Prabhakaran alleged that Tagore suppressed genuine information in his election affidavit and resorted to sneaky approaches to secure victory. Hence, he sought to declare his election victory as null and void and grant relief to him.

Tagore alleged that the allegations levelled against him were scandalous and frivolous, and that the election petition was an abuse of law. He moved an application in the High Court seeking to strike down the pleadings against him in the election petition.

However, the HC refused his plea and ordered to continue the trial in the election case.