Chennai, Feb 13 (IANS): An independent candidate contesting the Erode East bypoll, Agni Sriramachandran has petitioned Chief Electoral Officer, Satyabrata Sahoo to cancel the by-election to Erode East constituency to be held on February 27.

The petitioner said that the nomination of one of the candidates, Kumaraswamy( Serial no 11) had a glaring mistake and said that the candidate was allocated Green Chilly as election symbol. However, Agni Sriramachandran said that Kumaraswamy was designated as a Janata Dal (S) candidate and charged that the candidate does not belong to the Janata Dal and that the party had not given him Form A and B which was mandatory to use party name.

He also said that money and food were distributed by several candidates to the voters but this glaring mistake must be properly taken into account and the election cancelled.

In the petition, Agni Sriramachandran said that the Election commission must countermand the bypoll to the Erode East constituency and conduct a fresh election at a later date.

It is to be noted that the by-elections to Erode East constituency was necessitated following the passing away of the sitting legislature, E. Thirumahan Everaa of the Congress. EVKS Elangovan, senior leader of the Congress party and father of the deceased MLA.