Recount was necessitated by AIADMK candidate Selva Mohandas Pandian's petition in court; he got 3 additional votes.
Published Jul 14, 2023 | 10:39 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 14, 2023 | 10:39 AM
The Madras High Court had directed to finish the counting process and declare the results in 10 days. (Creative Commons)
Congress candidate and sitting MLA S Palani Nadar was declared the winner — once again — of the Tenkasi Assembly constituency after postal votes were recounted as directed by the Madras High Court.
He defeated AIADMK candidate Selva Mohandas Pandian, whose petition in the court had necessitated the recount.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), on late on Thursday, 13 July, declared that Palani Nadar had won the seat by a margin of 373 votes.
More than 20 ECI staff were involved in the counting process of the postal votes through Thursday, led by the Returning Officer Lavanya. The counting was monitored by the District Election Officer cum District Collector Durai Ravichandran.
AIADMK candidate Pandian initially opposed counting of only Form 13 C of the postal ballots. He insisted the election officer also display Form 13 B before counting the postal votes.
Thereafter, the counting process was stopped for two hours. Later, after the intervention of the district collector, both Form 13 B and Form 13 C was counted.
The AIADMK candidate also insisted that the election officer should not count postal ballots which did not carry the signature of a gazetted officer.
Following this, all the 2,971 postal votes were recounted and the results were declared. Palani received 1,642 postal votes and Pandian secured 704 — with 316 votes being rejected.
Returning Officer Lavanya told media that a total of 82 postal votes, which were not counted in 2021 owing to lack of signature on Form 13 C, were also taken up for counting and, as a result, Palani secured three more votes than the votes he secured when results were announced after the 2021 Assembly elections.
She also stated that the results would be submitted to the court.
In the 2021 assembly elections, Palani secured 370 postal votes.
On 6 July, the Madras High Court ordered a recounting of postal votes on the petition filed by Pandian.
Finding that the evidence placed before the court pointed to errors in the total number of voters in the constituency and the total number of votes polled, the court allowed a recount of postal ballots within 10 days.
The court also directed the entire counting process be videographed and the declared results be submitted to it.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, 18 candidates, including the Congress candidate Palani Nadar and AIADMK candidate Pandian, contested the Assembly segment. Palani Nadar secured 89,315 votes, including 1,609 postal votes, and Pandian got 88,945 votes, including 674 postal ballots. Palani Nadar was declared elected by a thin margin of 370 votes.
Alleging foul play in declaring the results of the postal votes, Pandian complained that only after the completion of the 27th round did the returning officer stop the counting of the EVM votes and to count the postal ballots. At that point he was leading by 2,918 votes.
Pandian also stated that as per Rule 60, the counting process should be continuous and should not be stopped in between without reason.
He claimed that the returning officer, in an arbitrary manner, did not take any action based on the objection raised by his chief election agent, KP Kumar Pandian, and continued the counting of postal votes after stopping the counting of the EVM votes.
He contended that several postal ballots did not contain the attestation and the seal of any gazetted officer, and the same were not rejected by the returning officer. Some of the postal ballots contained two tick marks, or the vote recorded by the mark was indistinct and ambiguous, he claimed.
