RK Nagar bypoll: EC rejects Vishal's nomination once again after two proposers deny supporting actor's candidacy

After twists and turns, actor Vishal Krishna’s nomination to contest the 21 December by-election to the Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai was finally rejected late on Tuesday by the Returning Officer. According to the Returning Officer, the nomination filed by Vishal (as he is popularly known) has been rejected as two of the proposers had said they had not proposed the actor’s name. The poll body said a candidate has to be proposed by 10 persons but in the case of Vishal, only eight valid proposers have endorsed his candidature.

#UPDATE Actor Vishal's nomination has been rejected again by the Election Commission in RK Nagar by election #Chennai

— ANI (@ANI) December 5, 2017

Earlier in the day, the poll body had rejected Vishal’s nomination forcing the actor to protest on the road. Subsequently Vishal submitted a recorded conversation with a person named Velu, said to be relative of a woman who had proposed his candidature. As per the phone recording, Velu told Vishal that the woman was threatened to give a letter to the poll body stating that she did not sign the nomination form.

My nomination is accepted and I am contesting the #RKNagarByPoll : Actor Vishal

— ANI (@ANI) December 5, 2017

Later after meeting the Election Commission, Vishal told the media, “My nomination has been accepted. I thank the Election Commission. The Returning Officer has done what has to be done.” “The audio recording that you all heard is true,” he told reporters. [caption id=“attachment_4244563” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of actor Vishal. PTI[/caption] Referring to the audio clip furnished by Vishal, the Returning Officer said the veracity of the person speaking therein could not be ascertained. When asked if Vishal’s claim was true, the returning officer told PTI that the matter was still under process. “No, it (Vishal’s representation challenging the rejection) is under process. We will issue orders,” he had said. The poll body has also rejected the nomination form filed by late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar, while accepting the nomination papers filed by candidates belonging to the ruling AIADMK (E Madhusudhanan), DMK (N Marudhu Ganesh), the Bharatiya Janata Party (K Nagarajan) and over 50 Independents. Deepa’s nomination papers were rejected as several columns were left blank. A total of 145 persons had filed their nomination papers of that 72 nominations have been accepted and 73 have been rejected. The last date for the withdrawal of the candidature is 7 December. The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant following the death of Jayalalithaa on 5 December, 2016. With inputs from agencies