Male winner from women’s ward elected civic VP

Topping them all is the case that happened in Karur district where two men - A Jayaseelan and A Krishnamurthy - contested and one of them, Krishnamurthy, won from a women’s ward.

The incident, which came to light on Saturday, took place in ward number 6 of Chithalaivai panchayat inKrishnarayapuram union.

Subsequently, election officials had also reportedly handed over the certificate to him. Krishnamurthy later contested for the post of vice chairman at the indirect polls and won there as well.

While officials were not aware of the reservation policy, they had gone ahead and had reportedly received their papers, held the elections and even the results were uploaded on the official website.

In such a backdrop, the information about the reservation suddenly became public and spread like wildfire.

When the news reached the district administration, Collector T Anbalagan immediately ordered a thorough investigation into the election and sought a detailed report on the confusion. Hence officials declared the election invalid on Saturday. An order in this regard was sent to officials and also to Krishnamurthy.

The district election officer and Collector said that a re-election would be held in the ward with proper directives from the Election commission.

The order also stated that action would be initiated against the Assistant Returning Officer who accepted the nominations after scrutinising it.

The Krishnarayapuram issue has now led to questions among the public whether there could be more similar cases in other districts too across the State.