EC postpones Chairman election for third time

Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, Nov 30 (UNI) The Election Commission today indefinitely postponed the scheduled election of the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of Kancheepuram Panchayat Union.

Official sources said in the Panchayat Union poll here earlier, 22 ward members were elected. The election for the Chairman post had been postponed last month when an unidenitifed person barged into the Chirukaveripakkam panchayat office and tore the ballot papers.

The DMK Panchayat Union Secretary P M Kumar and the PMK candidate Sridhar were contesting for the post. The subsequent poll scheduled for November 13 was also postponed due to absence of a majority of the ward members.

In the meantime, two AIADMK Councillors of the Panchayat Union Jayaraman(55) and Pandian(45), who were allegedly kidnapped by Mr Kumar, were supporting the candidature of Mr Sridhar.

Ms Padma, wife of Mr Jayaraman and Subramanian, brother of Mr Pandian filed a Habeaus Corpus petition in Madras High Court, alleging that Mr Kumar was behind the kidnapping of the AIADMK Councillors.

The Madras High Court Judges P K Mishra and Sampat Kumar had ordered for the production of the kidnapped Councillors in the Court.

Incidentally, police arrested Mr Sridhar for allegedly entering the Chennai airport by force. Mr Kumar with nine members of his party supporters were present in the panchayat office, but the absence of Mr Sridhar and his supporters forced the election commission to postpone the poll indefinitely for the third time.

The District Collector Pradeep Yadav said the Election Commission, had however, decided not to postpone the poll, if the ward members continued to remain absent for the fourth time around.

In the meantime, the two allegedy kidnapped AIADMK Councillors were arrested by the police at Sarvatheertha pond near here and taken around Kancheepuram, when they were on their way to the panchayat office to cast their votes. The Councillors were then taken to the main police station here for an enquiry and an investigation was underway.

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