Actor Vishal’s nomination papers rejected

Earlier, when EC officials rejected Vishal’s nomination papers citing the same reason, the actor-producer and several of his supporters staged a sit-in near the office of the returning officer in North Chennai protesting the decision to reject his papers. 

Vishal had also filed a petition with the returning officer challenging the decision and even released an audio clip of a conversation with a person who spoke on behalf of one his proposers, Sumathy. In the clip, the speaker claimed that Sumathy and another proposer had been threatened and even lured with cash to backtrack on his signature by supporters of AIADMK candidate E Madhusudhanan. The audio clip, which immediately went viral, also had the supporter mention names of supporters of AIADMK presidium chairman who allegedly kept him confined and threatened his family members.

Vishal had also gone on record claiming that his nomination had been accepted and that he would begin campaigning. “The nomination that I filed has been accepted. I thank the Election Commission,” Vishal told reporters here. However, after perusing Vishal’s review petition, EC officials conducted a hearing of both sides and concluded that Vishal did not have enough proposers. “Upon the summary hearing, it is clear that two proposers, namely Sumathy and Deepan, have appeared in person and staked claim that it was not their valid signatures and the representatives of the nominee of Vishal Krishna only brought a telephonic audio clip. The veracity of the person speaking therein cannot be ascertained and hence I conclude that the required number of proposers have not validly proposed the candidature of Vishal Krishna,” the Returning Officer noted. 

Supporters of J Deepa, whose nomination form was also rejected, clashed with supporters of Madhusudhanan later during the day. Police had to intervene and bring the situation under control.