Panchayat poll held amid tight security

Kancheepuram, Dec 19 (UNI) After being postponed thrice for want of quorum, elections to Kancheepuram Panchayat Union were held today amid tight security and an independent with PMK support was declared elected as President.

Elections to this Panchayat was first put off on October 23 when an unidentified person barged into the voting hall and tore the ballot papers.

Later, election was twice postponed for want of quorum when Mr P M Kumar of DMK and Mr Sridhar of PMK contested for the President's post.

Following this, District Collector Pradeep Yadav had announced the elections would no longer be postponed, whether there was quorum or not and after which, the election authorities conducted the polling today.

Amid tight security, DMK nominee Kumar came with eight of his supporting councillors but Mr Sridhar was conspicuous by his absence.

However, his supporter Venkatesan, an independent, filed his papers against the DMK candidate and won the elections, securing 11 votes.

The DMK also lost the Vice President Post. AIADMK Candidate Santhi Pandian defeated DMK nominee Radhakrishnan, securing 11 votes.

UNI XR/WS VD VV1952