December 21: Byelection to Jayalalithaa's RK Nagar seat

CHENNAI: Much-awaited by-elections to the prestigious R K Nagar Assembly constituency, which fell vacant after the death of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, will be held on December 21, the Election Commission announced on Friday. Immediately after the Election Commission released the schedule for the polls, District Election Officer and Chennai Corporation Commissioner D. Karthickeyan announced that model code of conduct has already come into force and appointed K. Velusamy, joint director of Adidravida welfare department, as the returning officer for the elections.

While announcing the schedule for the byelections, cancelled in April due to rampant use of money power, the EC said votes polled in the December 21 elections would be counted on December 24, which falls on a Sunday. While filing of nominations will begin on November 27 and go on till December 4, scrutiny will be held on December 5 and last date for withdrawal of nominations would be December 7, the EC said.

The schedule was announced days after the Madras high court directed the EC to conduct the bypolls by December 31, while hearing the plea of DMK leader R. S. Bharathi. The bypoll schedule also came a day after the Election Commission recognised the faction led by EPS-OPS as the AIADMK and allotted Two Leaves symbol to it.

Jayalalithaa had contested successfully from R K Nagar constituency twice – in 2015 and 2016. The bypolls is expected to serve as the acid test for the AIADMK government as the constituency is likely to witness a four-cornered contest with nominees from AIADMK, DMK, BJP and TTV Dhinakaran jumping into the fray.
“K. Velusamy, joint director of Adidravida welfare department, has been appointed as the returning officer for the constituency, while Tondiarpet tahsildar S. Murugesan and special tahsildar R. Subramanian have been named as assistant returning officer,” Karthickeyan told reporters after chairing a high-level meeting.

The corporation’s zonal office in Tondiarpet would serve as the office of the returning officer, Karthickeyan said and asked public not to paste any notice on walls in the constituency. He also asked officials to cooperate with the administration to ensure that the polls are held in free and fair manner. Bypoll in RK Nagar previously scheduled for April 12, 2017, was cancelled by the EC following a report by the income tax department that documents seized during searches at the premises of an accountant of health minister C. Vijayabhaskar showed that Rs 89 crore was channeled to RK Nagar through party functionaries. The amount was allegedly channeled through many party functionaries for distribution to voters, I-T sources had said.