Madras High Court permits DMDK leader Vijaya Prabhakaran to withdraw election petition against Manickam Tagore

DMDK leader Vijaya Prabhakaran. File

The Madras High Court has permitted Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) youth wing secretary V. Vijaya Prabhakaran to withdraw an election petition filed by him in 2024 challenging the victory of incumbent Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president B. Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency.

Justice N. Sathish Kumar allowed an application filed by the DMDK leader seeking the leave (permission) of the court to withdraw his election petition. Explaining the reason for his decision, the applicant said he had decided to bestow his attention to public life rather than continuing the litigation pending for the last two years and taking it to the next stage of trial.

He had sought the leave of the court under Sections 109 and 110 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. Pursuant to his application, the court had ordered issuance of public notices to find out if any other person was interested in substituting himself/herself in the place of the election petitioner in order to pursue the proceedings but none approached the court for doing so.

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Though the election petition had been filed alleging electoral malpractices, the judge wrote: “When the election petitioner himself is not in a position to continue the Election Petition for some or other reasons and there are no materials to show that there was any bargain for withdrawal, this Court is of the view that keeping the Election Petition pending will not serve any purpose.”

Justice Kumar also directed the High Court Registry to inform the Election Commission of India about the election petition having been dismissed as withdrawn. The orders were passed after hearing advocates Chevanan Mohan, N.C. Ashok Kumar, S. Elambarathi, M. Vijaymehanath and Niranjan Rajagopalan for various parties involved in the case.

Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency had witnessed a keenly contested three-cornered fight between Mr. Tagore, Mr. Prabhakaran and actor R. Radikaa Sarathkumar who was fielded as a candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mr. Tagore had polled 3,85,256 votes and defeated his nearest rival Mr. Prabhakaran by a slim margin of 4,379 votes with the latter securing as many as 3,80,877 votes.

In his election petition, Mr. Prabhakaran had accused Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer V.P. Jeyaseelan, who was the Returning Officer of Virudhunagar paliamentary constituency, of having succumbed to the pressure exerted by the then DMK Ministers K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Thangam Thennarasu and P. Moorthy for furthering the prospects of the election of their then alliance party candidate Mr. Tagore.

Mr. Prabhakaran had also raised other grounds such as improper acceptance of nomination paper by claiming the MP had not disclosed all details regarding his assets and criminal cases. He had further accused the MP of having won the election by indulging in electoral corrupt practices such as bribing the voters through distribution of a ‘guarantee card’ and so on.

Paying cash for votes, booth capturing, malpractices during the counting of votes, improper rejection of postal ballots polled in favour of the election petitioner and alleged excess expenditure by the MP were the other grounds on which his election had been challenged. Mr. Tagore had taken out an application in 2024 itself to reject the election petition and strike off the allegations levelled against him.

The MP argued the guarantee card contained an assurance given by the Congress in its election manifesto and therefore such an assurance could not be termed as a corrupt practice. He also contended all the charges levelled against him were vague and do not necessitate a trial. However, Justice Kumar had on March 4, 2025 refused to reject the election petition and decided to take it up for trial.

Tamil Nadu / General Elections 2024 / Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam / Indian National Congress / election