Co-op polls: Court adjourns hearing

Counsel for the petitioner argued that in more than 9,000 Cooperative Societies for which elections were held, functionaries of the ruling party were elected unopposed in over 7,000 societies and it shows that the elections were conducted only to select persons of the ruling party, when the petition came up before Justice CT Selvam and Justice AM Basheer Ahamed, on Wednesday. 

The counter affidavit of the Election Commissioner of Cooperative Societies was also submitted, however it was rejected by the judges saying that it was vague. The judges also directed the Election Commissioner to file a counter affidavit with all the details pertaining to the elections on Thursday, or at least inform the court verbally about the details. 

Petitioner and Oddanchatram MLA R Sakkarapani, in his petition, had stated that the AIADMK MPs and MLAs who were appointed as District Coordinators used their clout to elect their own party members in the Cooperative Societies. The applications of members of opposition parties were rejected and in many incidents the members of ruling parties were declared unopposed. He had sought an independent probe to ascertain the truth and for the court to stay the ongoing election.