Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has been issued notice by the Madras High Court on a batch of election petitions contesting his victories in the Perambur and Tiruchy East Assembly constituencies in April's polls.
Who Filed The Petitions
The petitions were filed by DMK's RD Sekar, who lost to Vijay in Perambur, along with two voters, Dinesh and Lakshminarasimhan, from the same constituency. A separate petition challenging the Tiruchy East result was filed by DMK's S Inigo Irudayaraj.
Justice V Lakshminarayanan admitted the petitions on Tuesday, directing the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam founder and the Election Commission of India to respond within three weeks, while flagging certain procedural defects the petitioners were asked to rectify, Live Law reported.
Allegations Of 'Blackmailing' Children
According to The Hindu, the petitioners alleged that Vijay had "blackmailed" children through his campaign speeches by emotionally appealing to them to influence their families' votes, submitting a DVD of his 21 April campaign address at Chennai's YMCA grounds as evidence.
They contended this violated the ECI's February 2024 directive barring the use of children in election campaigning.
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The petitions also raised concerns over unreported campaign expenditure, citing composer S Thaman's TVK campaign anthems, and alleged discrepancies in Vijay's asset affidavit, where his income tax dues reportedly appeared as Rs 3.44 crore in one section but were shown as nil in another, the report said.
A further allegation concerned campaigning at St Antony's Church on 19 April.
Notice To Minister And Other Leaders Too
The Indian Express reported that the court separately ordered notice to Sports Development Minister Aadhav Arjuna over petitions from DMK's Karthick Mohan and voter Sivaraj challenging his win in Villivakkam, with a similar three-week deadline for replies.
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Tiruvannamalai Seat Also Under Challenge
In a related matter, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy ordered notice to former minister EV Velu over a petition from TVK's Arul Arumugam disputing his win in Tiruvannamalai by a margin of 2,455 votes, directing a reply by 21 July.
Similar notices were issued concerning the victories of S Jayakumar, who won as a DMK candidate before switching to the TVK, and Congress MLA Tharagai Cuthbert.
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