V. Vijaya Prabhakaran. File
| Photo Credit: G. Moorthy
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) youth wing secretary V. Vijaya Prabhakaran, has decided to withdraw an election petition filed by him before the Madras High Court in 2024 challenging the victory of incumbent Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president B. Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency in the parliamentary elections.
In an application filed before Justice N. Sathish Kumar, Mr. Prabhakaran said he does not want to take the election petition for trial since he had decided to bestow his attention to public life rather than continuing the litigation pending for last two years. He sought the leave of the court, under Sections 109 and 110 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, to withdraw the election petition.
The judge has directed the applicant to issue notice to all the parties to the election petition besides issuing a publication in the official government gazette expressing his desire to withdraw the election petition to find out if any other eligible person was interested in substituting himself/herself in the place of the election petitioner in order to continue the challenge made to the victory of Virudhunagar MP Mr. Tagore.
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.
Published – September 27, 2026 01:14 pm IST
