EC names 3 expenditure observers for RK Nagar bypoll

Chennai :The Election Commission today named three officials as the expenditure observers for the December 21 by-election to the RK Nagar assembly constituency here, represented by late chief minister Jayalalithaa twice.

Kumar Pranav, Indian Revenue Service, Sheel Asheesh, Indian Railway Accounts Service, and TK Jagoria, Indian Defence Account Service, have been appointed as the observers, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer(CEO), Rajesh Lakhoni, said.They have been asked to report (for duty here) on December 7, he said in a release.

The bypoll has been necessitated by the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year.The EC last week announced the schedule for the bypoll as per which voting will be held on December 21 and the counting on December 24.DMK has already announced its candidate while the ruling AIADMK, headed by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam, is likely to name its nominee in a day or two.

Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran has announced he would contest the bypoll.Meanwhile, the city police said security arrangements have been put in place in the constituency in connection with the bypoll.The arrangements included 12 round-the-clock checkposts with six of them being manned by the Swift Action Group (SAG) personnel, a police release said.

"Complaints related to RK Nagar bye-election will be received and acted upon immediately," it said.Bypoll to the constituency was originally scheduled to be held on April 12, but the EC cancelled it on grounds of alleged bribing of voters by distribution of money and gifts.