Tamil actor Vishal has announced plans to appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind over the Election Commission’s flip-flops over his nomination for the RK Nagar bypoll.
On 6 December, the actor tweeted about the “death of democracy”, following reports that his candidature had been rejected yet again.
Accepted, Rejected, Accepted
On 5 December, Vishal claimed that his nomination for the 21 December RK Nagar bypoll has been accepted by authorities. This was soon followed by reports that his nomination has been rejected by the Election Commission. The actor told NDTV.
I’m disappointed that entire system right now they need to give a proper answer, they just can’t give a letter... it’s for everyone to see. Today’s world we have video, we have WhatsApp, we have all the evidence.Vishal told NDTV
Vishal is the second high-profile candidate to have had his nomination rejected, the first being Jayalalithaa’s niece, Deepa from the MGR Amma Deepa Peravai, The News Minute reported.
D Karthikeyan, the District Election Officer of Chennai told The Hindu that the Returning Officer’s order “is a quasi-judicial order and cannot be changed.” According to the report, the only course available to Vishal now would be to file an election petition in the Madras High Court, which challenged the decision of the Returning Officer.
Returning Officer of RK Nagar assembly constituency confirmed the rejection of his nomination, late on 5 December.
The News Minute report said that in a statement, the RO stated that Vishal’s nomination papers had come under scrutiny after objections were raised over the genuinity of the proposers.
The RO goes on to state that two proposers – Sumathy and Deepan – had appeared in person and “submitted written representation that they had not proposed the nomination of Thiru Vishal Krishna and their signatures have been forged”.
While speaking to Puthiya Thalaimurai news channel, the actor said, “I filed the nomination to do good for the people, but never thought it will be so difficult to do good... But justice will prevail.”
He added that he wanted to contest as an independent candidate. “I am not doing this with the motive of starting a political party in the future,” he told the channel.
Earlier in the day, the EC accepted Vishal’s nomination after initially rejecting it.
The actor had gone on a dharna after the news of his nomination being rejected broke. After the EC’s change of heart, he said he was “really thankful to the Election Commission for doing the right thing.”
An audio clip was circulated on social media platforms allegedly accusing EPS-OPS duo of indulging in malpractices. In the audio clip, Vishal is heard speaking to a family member of one of the persons who proposed his name. A person named Velu is heard claiming that he was offered money by Madhusudhanan group (OPS-EPS' candidate) to claim that their signatures were forged. He also said that they were threatened and taken to the zonal office.
A video showing Vishal playing the audio clip was also circulated to prove the authenticity of the conversation.
Vishal Announces Political Debut
The actor announced his political debut by tweeting about his plans to contest the bypolls, necessitated by the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa.
He filed his nomination as an independent candidate on 4 December.
Last year, Vishal won a bitterly-fought election to be appointed the general secretary of the actors’ body, SIAA. Later, he was also elected as the head of the TFPC and has been actively campaigning against piracy, one of the major issues in Tamil cinema.
(With inputs from PTI and The News Minute)
(This is a developing story and will be updated)
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