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29 Mar 2024, Edition - 3181, Friday

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After Jayalalithaa, Who? RK Nagar Votes On December 21, Results On 24th

ndtv.com

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The election for the state legislator from RK Nagar, which J Jayalalithaa represented two times, was to be held in April, but was cancelled after huge amounts of cash were found in Chennai that were allegedly to be used to bribe voters.

Reported by J Sam Daniel Stalin, Edited by Deepshikha Ghosh

RK Nagar, the constituency in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai that has been vacant since the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa a year ago, will vote on December 21 for a new representative.

The result will be declared on December 24.

The dates have been announced three days after the Madras High Court gave a December 31 deadline for the election of a new lawmaker for the constituency.

The election for RK Nagar, which Jayalalithaa represented for two terms, was cancelled earlier in April following allegations of a massive amount of cash and other inducements being circulated among voters. The Election Commission was told that voters were being bribed with prepaid phone recharge coupons, newspaper subscriptions, milk tokens and mobile wallet payments. A minister was also accused of arranging such inducements.

Tax raids at properties linked to state minister C Vijayabhaskar revealed routing of Rs. 89 crore for “distribution to voters” in RK Nagar.

The opposition DMK has alleged in court that one lakh fake voters were registered in the constituency and said there should be no voting till corrections are made.

Jayalalithaa died while she was Chief Minister last December. Days later, the ruling AIADMK was plunged into turmoil and infighting as Jayalalithaa loyalist O Panneerselvam, who took over as Chief Minister after her death, rebelled against VK Sasikala, her closest companion.

Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dhinakaran had announced that he would contest the election as the candidate of the AIADMK. But Dhinakaran has been sidelined by Chief Minister E Palaniswami and Paneerselvam, who merged his rebel faction into the party in August on the condition that Sasikala would no longer be its chief.

Sasikala is serving a four-year jail term for corruption.

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