Along with several of his supporters, Vishal briefly squatted on the road in North Chennai protesting the decision to reject his papers.Chennai: After twists and turns, actor Vishal Krishna's nomination to contest the December 21 by-election to the Radhakrishnan Nagar (RK Nagar) assembly constituency here was finally rejected on late Tuesday by the returning officer.
In his order, the poll authority said required number of proposers had not validly proposed the candidature of Vishal Krishna and that the actor had been proposed only by eight valid proposers.
"Hence, he has not fulfilled the conditions for valid nomination," returning officer K Velusamy said in his order.
"Therefore, I conclude that the nomination of Vishal Krishna is rejected upon my summary enquiry," the official said in the order which was circulated to media.
The RO said two among the 10 proposers, Sumathy and Deepan, appeared before him in person and claimed that it was not their valid signatures (in the nomination papers).
"Sumathy and Deepan appeared before me in person and submitted a written representation that they had not proposed the nomination of Vishal Krishna," he said.
They submitted that their signatures had been forged, the order read.
Earlier in the day, the poll body had rejected Vishal's nomination forcing the actor to protest on the road. Subsequently, Vishal submitted a recorded conversation with a person named Velu, said to be relative of a woman who had proposed his candidature.
As per the phone recording, Velu told Vishal that the woman was threatened to give a letter to the poll body stating that she did not sign the nomination form.
Later after meeting the Election Commission, Vishal told the media: "My nomination has been accepted. I thank the Election Commission. The returning officer has done what has to be done."
"The audio recording that you all heard is true," he told reporters.
Referring to the audio clip furnished by Vishal, the returning officer said the veracity of the person speaking therein could not be ascertained.
The poll body has also rejected the nomination form filed by late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar, while accepting the nomination papers filed by candidates belonging to the ruling AIADMK (E Madhusudhanan), DMK (N Marudhu Ganesh), the Bharatiya Janata Party (K Nagarajan) and over 50 independents.
Deepa's nomination papers were rejected as several columns were left blank.
A total of 145 persons had filed their nomination papers of that 72 nominations have been accepted and 73 have been rejected.
The last date for the withdrawal of the candidature is December 7.
The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant following the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016.
