After hours of drama, twists and turns of acceptance and rejection, actor Vishal Krishna’s nomination papers to the RK Nagar constituency were rejected. Vishal is officially out of the fray now.
In a statement issued late night, Returning Officer Velusamy said Vishal’s papers have been rejected. Explaining the reasons for rejection, Velusamy said, “The papers were scrutinised after objections were raised over the authenticity of the proposers. Two of the proposers—Sumathy and Deepan—appeared in person and gave a written representation saying that they had not proposed the nomination of Thiru Vishal Krishna and that their signatures were forged.
After the ECI informed that his papers were rejected, Velusamy said that Vishal came in person and produced an audio clip which claimed that the proposer Sumathy was coerced by people who were supporting Madhusoodhanan to give the representation of false signature.
He further states, “Upon the summary hearing, it is clear that the two proposers, namely Smt Sumathy and Thiru Deepan have appeared in person and staked claim that it was not their valid signatures and the representative of the nominee of Thiru 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 the proposers have not validly proposed the candidature of Thiru Vishal Krishna and that he has been proposed by only eight valid proposers and hence he has not fulfilled the conditions for valid nomination. Therefore, I conclude that the nomination for Thiru Vishal Krishna filed in SL No. 72 is rejected upon my summary enquiry.”
More than the rejection, it was the drama and protests in front of the RO's office that caught everyone's attention. The drama began in the evening at around 5.30pm when Vishal reached there as his nomination papers were rejected. He sat in protest in front of the Velusamy's office. As if in a movie, Vishal shouted for justice when the police surrounded his team.
At around 8pm, news spread that his papers were accepted as Vishal produced an audio clip saying the proposers were coerced. But late in the night again after all the dust settled, his papers were rejected. The drama continued for several hours till midnight.
While Vishal was protesting at RK Nagar, his cinema colleagues sat in protest at the Tamil Nadu film producer’s council office. Director Cheran, who has been protesting for the past two days, had more voices to support him in the form of Radhika Sarathkumar and T. Rajender.
Meanwhile, one of the office bearers of the producer’s council K. Gnanavel Raja, resigned from the post of general secretary citing “personal reasons.” Sources say he stepped down as he had filed nominations to contest for the post of president of the Chennai, Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur District Film Distributors Association. It is said that the council has been suffering a setback, as most of the producers are still awaiting subsidy reimbursement from the state government for years now.
At least 148 producers, say sources are waiting for the reimbursement, for which the office bearers had taken responsibility. One of the prominent producers told THE WEEK, “We don’t have any objections to him contesting the bypolls. He can get into politics anytime as he wishes. But as the president of the association he has to work in tandem with the government to fulfill the pending requirements. This is his duty.”
However, the buzz in RK Nagar is that Vishal’s papers have been rejected, “out of fear.” RK Nagar, with just over 2,40,000 votes—has just three community votes with one being the Telugu population. Sources say Vishal was targeting these votes and splitting these votes will e a major setback for AIADMK’s Madhusoodhanan.
Vishal is one of the 54 candidates whose nomination has been rejected. Along with Vishal, Jayalaithaa’s neice Deepa Jayakumar’s papers were also rejected, as some of the columns in her Form 26 were left blank.
