Namesake confusion: Civic poll winner seeks justice

VELLORE: Though Jayanthi Prabakaran, who won from Ward 7 in the last rural local body polls but was not declared or given the election certificate as another woman with a similar name was allgedly wrongly declared as the winner, on Monday petitioned Vellore DRO K Ramamurthy to resolve her issue.

As highlighted in these columns on March 5, P Jayanthi won the polls to Ward 7 in the Rajakkal village panchayat with 119 votes, but the assistant returning office (ARO) and Pernambut BDO declared V Jayanthi who secured 64 votes, the lowest among the four contestants as the winner.

The latter was given the election certificate and she has been representing Ward 7 in village panchayat meetings.

The truth came to light when ‘loser’ Jayanthi’s husband Prabakaran, an auto driver, checked the Tamil Nadu Election Commission website and found that his wife was named the winner.

When he went to hand over a petition to rectify this to the BDO citing the records on the Tamil Nadu Election Commission website, the latter refused to receive his petition.

Speaking to DT Next, Prabakaran said, “I took time to reach Vellore as I had no idea what to do next. It was only after some friends advised me to petition the Vellore Collector P Kumaravel Pandian to set matters right.”

As the Collector was in weekly grievances day meeting on Monday, Prabakaran who came with his ‘loser’ wife Jayanthi and others handed over the petition to DRO Ramamurthy, who in turn forwarded it to a senior official.

Anbalagan, one of the friends, said that the official had assured to update us on the issue within a few days.

“However, I wonder what prevented the loser who was given the winner’s certificate from coming out with the truth immediately,” a district official wondered.

In her petition, P Jayanthi sought a repoll for the ward under Section 66 of the Panchayat Raj Act by the Collector, who is also the inspector of panchayats.