Put off LS poll in Madurai for Chitirai fest, seeks petitioner

Parthasarathy in his plea said that the Chithirai festival is an annual celebration in the city of Madurai, where scores of people revel in festivities and a large number of police personnel would be deployed to ensure the safety of the people.

He said it would not be convenient for people to vote during the festival. To devote time and access polling booths to cast their votes on the occasion would not be feasible. Moreover, it would also cause difficulties for the authorities concerned to set up polling booths with necessary arrangements since most of the places would be occupied by people during the festival time. Further, Parthasarathy said it would put the government in a difficult position as it could not utilise the resources of police personnel fully during polling as a large posse would be deployed during the festival.

After observing the plea, a Division Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar said if the demand was placed in the form of petition, the bench would prosecute it in a day. Besides, representations were made by various political parties during a meeting convened by Madurai Collector S Natarajan to put off the Lok Sabha poll schedule.

They cited the Chithirai festival, which falls on the same day, as a reason for postponing the poll schedule. The representatives of political parties claimed that since some portions of three Lok Sabha constituencies, including Madurai, Virudhunagar and Theni were lying in Madurai, it would be difficult for voters to exercise their franchise as most of them would move to Madurai to witness the festival.

The Collector told reporters that poll related works would be carried out accordingly to conduct polls as per schedule. Commissioner of Madurai Corporation S Visakan, Commissioner of Madurai City Police S Davidson Devasirvatham, Superintendent of Police N Manivannan and officials from various departments were present.