Chennai: After twists and turns, actor Vishal Krishna's nomination to contest the December 21 by-election to the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency was finally rejected on late Tuesday.
According to the Returning Officer, the nomination filed by Vishal (as he is popularly known) has been rejected as two of the proposers had said they had not proposed the actor's name.
The poll body said a candidate has to be proposed by ten persons but in the case of Vishal, only eight valid proposers have endorsed his candidature.
Earlier in the day, the poll body had rejected Vishal's nomination forcing the actor to protest on the road.
Subsequently, Vishal submitted a recorded conversation with a person named Velu, said to be relative of a woman who had proposed his candidature.
As per the phone recording, Velu told Vishal that the woman was threatened to give a letter to the poll body stating that she did not sign the nomination form.
Later after meeting the EC, Vishal had told the media, "My nomination has been accepted. I thank the Election Commission. The Returning Officer has done what has to be done."
"The audio recording that you all heard is true," he had told reporters.
Referring to the audio clip furnished by Vishal, the Returning Officer said the veracity of the person speaking therein could not be ascertained.
Vishal heads the Tamil Film Producers Council and is the general secretary of the Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Artistes' Association).
The poll body has also rejected the nomination form filed by late Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa's niece J Deepa, while accepting the nomination papers filed by candidates belonging to the ruling AIADMK (E.Madhusudhanan), DMK (N Marudhu Ganesh), the Bharatiya Janata Party (K Nagarajan) and over 50 independents.
Her nomination papers were rejected as several columns were left blank. Deepa alleged it was not done for any valid reasons. "It is being done wantonly," she added.
As many as 145 nominations were received from aspirants seeking to contest the bypoll. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is December 7, 2018.
Candidates of AIADMK, DMK and BJP, besides sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran are in the fray.
The RK Nagar seat fell vacant following the death of its MLA and then CM Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016.
(With IANS inputs)
