HC rejects plea against AIADMK organisational polls

Chennai, Dec 14 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed as not maintainable, a PIL petition challenging the organisational polls of the AIADMK, where incumbents O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami were elected unopposed as Coordinator and Joint Coordinator, respectively.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu rejected the plea from J Jayachandran of Arsanapatti in Hosur in the state.

The petition prayed for a direction to the Election Commission of India not to affix its seal of approval for the election of Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, both former Chief Ministers of the state, as the co-ordinator and joint coordinator in the polls supposed to be held at the party headquarters at Royapettah here on December 7. They were declared elected on December 6 as unopposed.

In his petition, Jayachandran, who was allegedly manhandled when he went to the party headquarters at Royapettah here to obtain nomination papers to contest in the elections on December 4, cited the ECI as the first respondent.

He contended the mandatory notice of a clear 21 days from the date of announcement of election and the date of polling, was not issued.

The election officers -- C Ponnaiyan and Pollachi V Jayaraman -- nominated by the party high command, were acting whimsically. The voters list, consisting of nearly 1.50 crore cadres, was not made public. The entire proceedings were conducted in such a way to ensure that only the two top leaders filed their nominations for the respective posts , he alleged.

The bench dismissed the petition on limine after holding it was not maintainable. PTI CORR SA SA