Coimbatore, Nov. 24
Just a day after the Election Commission (EC) allotted the 'iconic' two-leaves symbol to the ruling group of AIADMK headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, the EC today announced dates for the by-election to Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly (RK nagar) constituency, which became vacant because of demise of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
She won the by-election in 2015 by a huge margin of 1.5 lakh votes defeating CPI candidate C. Mahendran. The by-election will be held on December 21. Hence, the model code of conduct comes into effect from today, according to a statement from the EC.
The lasts date for filing of nominations is December 4. The last date for withdrawal of nominations would be December 7. And, counting of votes and results would be on December 24.
Four more by-elections have also been announced on the same day in three States – Uttar Pradesh (Sikandra constituency), Arunachal Pradesh (Pakke-Kasang and Likbali) and West Bengal (Sabang). Electronic voting machines (EVM) with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) will be used in all the four constituencies.
It is to be re-called that the dates for by-elections to RK Nagar was earlier announced as April 12 but following the repeated allegations of "cash for votes", the EC was forced to postpone the by-elections indefinitely. However, the Madras High Court had ordered EC to hold the bypoll before December 31. Hence, left with no choice the EC has announced the dates for the by-poll on December 21.