Chennai: Election Commission of India has intensified deletion and inclusion of voters in draft voter rolls in Tamil Nadu and in a related development, the EC on Saturday appointed IAS officer Anil Mishram as a special observer to monitor draft roll corrections in Chennai district where poll-bound RK Nagar assembly seat is located.
Official sources with the public elections department confirmed to DC that the poll works related to RK Nagar bypolls has commenced. As per a high court order, the election to the prestigious seat has to be conducted before December 31 and preliminary works have begun.
“The bypoll to Jayalalithaa's RK Nagar seat is likely by the third week of December”, an informed source said. An official communiqué from Chennai district election officer D. Karthikeyan on Saturday informed that the special observer for Chennai will monitor the deletion and inclusion of voter rolls. Public and representatives of political parties can also lodge their suggestions to the poll observer at phone number 044-28545160, corporation sources said.
Meanwhile, the state election officials have identified 4.78 lakh entries that have to be deleted due to deaths or shifted from one constituency to another due to change of residence. In Chennai, 11609 dead people have been identified and their names are to be removed from voters roll. Similarly, 1,62,911 voters identified for shifting their residence.
It may be noted that by-elections to RK Nagar assembly constituency, was rescinded in April due to allegations of rampant use of money power and Chief Election Commissioner AK Jyoti has already announced that the bypoll will be conducted within this year.
