Ecstasy and agony for Chidambaram
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The Madras high court bench here turned down on Thursday Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s plea to dismiss a petition against his election to Lok Sabha from Sivagangai, holding that averments, including alleged corrupt practices pertaining to dispatch of money and other illegalities committed on the date of counting, as alleged by defeated AIADMK candidate R. S. Raja Kannappan, “do not require to be struck off at this stage”.
Justice K. Venkataraman, however, struck down two charges — distribution of cash, intimidation of voters and involvement of Chidambaram’s son Karti as his chief campaign agent — while asking the minister to face the case in respect of the remaining 27.
HC also struck down the charge that the returning officer enlisted officials from nationalised banks for election duty and that these officials “owed allegiance” to Chidambaram because he had opened branches of the banks in Sivagangai.
Chidambaram, who won the seat by 3,354 votes, sought dismissal of Kannappan’s plea with exemplary costs. He denied official machinery was misused and said son Karti was not his poll agent. He argued the charges of money dispatch and bias by poll officials were baseless.
Kannappan’s lawyer Saravana Kumar claimed victory, pointing out that HC had accepted all but two of the 29 charges.
Chidambaram’s counsel T. Sathyamurthy argued the court “has partially accepted the petition [of Kannappan] and struck out two crucial paragraphs”.
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