CUDDALORE: The
swearing-in ceremony
of a village
panchayat
president and nine village panchayat ward members at Kumalangulam in
Cuddalore
district of
Tamil Nadu was suspended on Monday by the district administration citing
law and order
problem.
More than 1,000 people, who gathered at a service centre in Vandarasankuppam village ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of village panchayat president and ward members at 10am, registered their strong protest against the poll officials for declaring a losing candidate as the winning candidate for the post of Kumalangulam panchayat president.
They prevented the officials from holding the swearing-in ceremony. They pointed out that confusion over the names of two candidates contesting for the village panchayat president post led to the declaration of the losing candidates as the victorious candidate.
Jayalakshmi and Vijayalakshmi were contesting for the post of village panchayat president. Jayalakshmi was contesting in ‘autorickshaw’ symbol while Vijayalakshmi on ‘lock and key’ symbol. As many as 4,139 votes were polled. Jayalakshmi polled 2,512 votes while Vijalakshmi 1,478. Jayalakshmi was ecstatic over winning the polls by a margin of 1,034 votes.
However, the poll officials declared at 9pm on Thursday that Vijayalakshmi contesting on autorickshaw symbol won the polls.
Shocked Jayalakshmi and her supporter D Kalaivannan approached the poll officials and explained that the poll symbols of the two contesting candidates had been interchanged.
The poll officials after verifying the documents submitted by the two candidates admitted their mistake but asked the winning candidate to wait until they consult the state election commission on the procedures to be correct the error.
However, the officials on Friday morning presented a certificate to the losing candidate Viayalakshmi declaring that she had won the polls and she was elected as Kumalangulam village panchayat president on; auto-rickshaw' symbol.
Jayalakshmi has moved the Madras high court seeking a direction to the poll officials to rectify their error and declare her as the winner of the polls to elect Kumalangulam village panchayat president.
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