J Jayalalithaa died while she was Chief Minister last December.
Highlights
- Jayalalithaa died in December, by-election cancelled in April
- Allegations that voters were being bribed led to cancellation
- Madras High Court says new MLA must be elected by Dec 31
A new representative for J Jayalalithaa's constituency of RK Nagar in Chennai must be elected before the end of the year, the Madras High Court ruled today.
The opposition DMK had alleged in court that one lakh fake voters have been registered for the election in RK Nagar and it should not be held till corrections are made.
Ms Jayalalithaa died while she was Chief Minister last December, throwing her party into disarray with competing factions arguing over who should be its new leader.
The election for the state legislator or MLA from RK Nagar, which Ms Jayalalithaa represented two times, was to be held in April, but was cancelled after huge amounts of cash were found in Chennai that were allegedly to be used to bribe voters.
TTV Dinakaran had announced that he would contest the election as the candidate of the ruling AIADMK. However, he has been sidelined since then by the combination of Chief Minister E Palaniswamy and his deputy, O Paneerselvam, who have the support of most of the AIADMK's legislators.
Mr Dinakaran is the nephew of VK Sasikala, who lived with Ms Jayalalithaa and was her closest aide. She has been jailed since February for a corruption case that saw her indicted along with Ms Jayalalithaa.