Scrutiny begins, anxiety shoots up among aspirants

Nomination of AMMK, Naam Tamizhar and MNM candidates were rejected due to error in their affidavits. Objections were also raised by AIADMK members against the nomination of AMMK candidate P Vettrivel in Perambur Assembly constituency.

Similarly, the DMK members in Thoothukudi, where Kanimozhi has fielded, objected to the nomination papers filed by BJP State president and party candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan, stating that the BJP leader failed to disclose her position she held in a public sector oil company.

A lot of drama and chaos was witnessed right in the State’s capital too. Inside the Corporation zonal office in Perambur, where the scrutiny for applications were going on till late in the night, a group of AIADMK cadre protested against Returning Officer Karunakaran for accepting former MLA P Vetrivel’s nomination from Perambur Assembly segment. This led to a heated argument between the AIADMK and AMMK cadre.

The AMMK workers claimed that the ruling party workers were trying to prevent Vetrivel from contesting the assembly byelection. As the news spread, more cadre from both the parties assembled at the election office resulting in a clash-like situation. Following a police team arrived at the office and brought the situation under control.

Former RK Nagar MLA P Vetrivel is contesting on an AMMK ticket. DMK has fielded former Councillor R D Sekar. The AIADMK has fielded its north Chennai district secretary R S Rajesh in Perambur.

Earlier in the day, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo conducted a review meeting with poll expenditure observers. District Election Officers were also instructed to start the preparation for the release of the final list of candidates.

The district Collectors also instructed the Revenue officials to begin works related to strong rooms for stocking the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the counting stations.

Independent candidates whose nominations were rejected during scrutiny staged a protest in front of the Coimbatore Collectorate on Wednesday.

Of the total 38 nominations filed for the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency, as many as 23 were rejected during scrutinity on Wednesday due to various reasons, including insufficient information and wrong details.

The nomination papers were scrutinised by officials led by the district Collector and Returning Officer, K Rajamani, in the presence of the candidates and their authorised agents. The officials informed them the reason for rejecting their nominations and also issued a copy of the order to the candidates.

The nominations of independent candidates, Noor Muhammed, Yuvaraj, Umar Ali, Sundarraj and Mani were rejected during the scrutiny. However, the independents alleged that their nominations were rejected without a valid reason. Therefore, they resorted to a protest in front of the Collectorate and raised slogans.

During the demonstration, the son of an independent candidate started rolling on the road. Subsequently, the police pacified them and asked them to withdraw their protest and leave the spot. For a while, vehicles could neither enter nor exit the Collectorate premises due to the protest.