Stalin goes to Madras HC over ‘faulty’ EVMs at Kolathur seat

CHENNAI: DMK President MK Stalin on Monday filed a petition in the Madras High Court, seeking to declare the election of TVK candidate VS Babu from Kolathur Assembly constituency as void and consequently declare him as duly elected from that constituency.

In his petition, Stalin submitted that after the election was over and results were declared, he had duly nominated senior advocate NR Elango as his authorised representative for checking and verification of the burnt memory/microcontroller in the Control Unit, Ballot Unit and VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) for 14 selected EVM sets pertaining to Kolathur constituency.

During checking and verification by Elango, grave and alarming irregularities came to light. Elango immediately wrote to the DEO informing him of these grave lapses. He said the impugned order has been passed mechanically without responding to any of the clarifications sought.

He also sought a direction to the authorities to conduct 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips relating to Kolathur constituency and the checking and verification of all 286 machines.