Stalin has also sought the invalidation of Babu’s election and a declaration that he be elected from the constituency. The Madras High Court is set to pronounce its order on September 3 on a plea by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin seeking 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips in the Kolathur assembly constituency, where he suffered a defeat to TVK’s VS Babu in the state elections earlier this year.
The dispute centres on the post-election verification of EVMs. Stalin has argued that the delay by the Election Commission affected his ability to pursue his legal remedy within the prescribed period for challenging an election. These included a VVPAT unit stopping with an error message during a mock poll, a Control Unit allegedly failing to detect a Ballot Unit carrying Stalin’s name, and incomplete address tags on some EVM components. The Election Commission, however, has challenged the maintainability of Stalin’s writ petition. Its argument is that an election result can be questioned only through an election petition under the Representation of the People Act, and that Stalin ought to have followed that route within the prescribed time.
Because of a delay by the election authorities, stalin’s side has countered that he had made his application for EVM verification within the permitted period, but the verification itself was taken up only later. Because of a delay over which he had no control, his counsel has argued that he should not lose his legal remedy. Babu defeated Stalin by 8,795 votes, polling 82,997 votes against Stalin’s 74,202. Stalin, who had won Kolathur in three successive elections since the constituency was formed in 2011, finished second this time. After the results were declared on May 4, Stalin applied on May 7 for verification of 14 EVM sets, 5 per cent of the 286 sets used in the constituency. However, the verification exercise began only on July 29 and was completed on August 5. Stalin’s side has cited these discrepancies while seeking verification of all EVMs and counting of 100 per cent of the VVPAT slips.
The verification exercise also threw up a number of technical and procedural issues, according to Stalin’s petition.
