Madras High Court Rejects Election Petition Against S Jayakumar's Victory

CHENNAI: Holding that the election petitioner failed to establish the allegations of corrupt practices against the winner, the Madras High Court has rejected an election petition seeking to nullify the victory of S Jayakumar, who had switched to TVK from AIADMK after resigning the post, in the Perundurai Assembly constituency. Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on applications filed by Jayakumar seeking to reject the election petition. The election petition was filed by Thoppu Venkatachalam @ ND Venkatachalam, who had contested as a DMK candidate but recently quit the party. Apart from seeking to nullify Jayakumar’s victory, he had also prayed for declaring him the winner. Perundurai is one of five vacant constituencies for which bye-polls were stayed by the HC on a PIL seeking to restrain the Election Commission from holding the bye-elections until the election petitions were decided by the court. Rejection of the election petition clears the way for holding the bye-elections, depending on whether the petitioner files an appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.