Tamil Nadu local body polls: Panchayat president candidate files plea in Madras HC seeking CCTV monitoring of counting centres

Chennai: Now, it looks like it is the turn of a candidate contesting the civic polls to approach the Madras High Court to direct the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission to monitor the counting of votes through CCTV cameras, and live telecast the feed in the counting centres. The plea was filed by P Ananthan on Saturday, a day after almost all opposition parties approached the High Court with several such prayers. Ananthan is contesting for the post of Kallipattu village panchayat president. [caption id=“attachment_4943441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of the Madras High Court. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] His plea would be taken up for hearing on 30 December by a vacation bench headed by Justice S Vaidyanathan. The petitioner wanted the court to pass an order to ensure transparency and fairness in the counting process for the post of Kallipattu village panchayat president in Panruti taluk. He said he had learnt from reliable sources that the local syndicate of the ruling party has colluded with the election officials to declare ruling party candidate as the elected candidate. “Even the deputy collector was attacked by the ruling party cadre on 21 December for which a case has been registered against them. The situation in the entire district has become worst. Utilising this, the ruling party is trying to declare all their party candidates as elected,” Ananthan alleged. “I was threatened to withdraw my nomination for the post of Kallipattu village panchayat president. The ruling partymen claimed that the winning candidate has already been decided, he further alleged. “I have also made representation to the election commission on 21 December explaining my apprehension that the ruling party cadre might indulge in poll malpractices to ensure that their candidate is declared as elected, he said. On Friday, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader D Parventhan and former DMK MLA A Raja were among those who filed petitions related to the local bodies election.