Jaya wants neutral person as returning officer for RS polls

Chennai, May 17 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa today urged the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to appoint a neutral person other than the present assembly secretary as returning officer for the June 15 biennial election to fill up six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu Assembly.

In a memorandum to the CEC, Ms Jayalalithaa, pointing out there would be a close contest with hairline separation between the successful and the unsuccessful candidates, alleged there was every possibility of the assembly secretary sabotaging the election, right from the rejection of nomination papers to the stage of counting of votes.

She claimed the AIADMK had received definite information about the conspiracy and evil designs engineered by the ruling DMK to appoint Assembly Secretary M Selvaraj as the returning officer.

Mr Selvaraj was scheduled to retire shortly and trying his best to secure an extention of his service, she claimed.

The CEC should nominate someone else with high integrity as returning officer, she said adding there were precedents in earlier elections when the assembly secretary was not accepted by the Election Commission as returning officer and the said precedent be followed now.

UNI