Nomination of TNCC chief's wife rejected in scrutiny

Chennai: The nomination of Jayanthi Thankgabalu, wife of TNCC President KV Thangabalu who is accused of "favouring undeserving" cases in distribution of Congress tickets for April 13 Assembly polls, was on Monday rejected in a city constituency during scrutiny.

Thankgabalu, who had filed his papers as a dummy for his wife in Mylapore constituency, claimed himself as the official candidate, though the high command had not given him the ticket.

Jayanthi had neither signed the nomination papers nor provided correct information about her assets and cases pending in court, resulting in the rejection of her papers, official sources said.

The Election Officer accepted the contention of Sivakami of Mahila Congress, who filed papers as an independent, that Jayanthi had not disclosed her position as the Managing Director of the family-run Tamil channel Mega TV, and undervalued the market price of land in which a private engineering college run by her was located on city outskirts.

Thankgabalu has been facing the ire of Congressmen who have been protesting against him in different parts of the state accusing him of giving tickets to "undeserving partymen and new comers" at Krishnagiri and Vilavancode, besides getting his wife nominated.

The nomination of Jayanthi has triggered the most vocal protests as it overlooked claims of several Congressmen, including sitting MLA, S Vee Sekar, who had recently joined the party, and former deputy mayor of Chennai Karate R Thiygarjan, a loyalist of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Thankgabalu told reporters that he would be lodging a complaint with the Election Commission on the rejection of his wife's nomination papers.

He claimed his wife had filed four sets of nomination papers, but only two were now available with the Election Officer. He wanted to know the mystery behind the missing of the other two sets of nomination papers.

Thankgabalu faced allegations that he had suppressed facts from the high command while getting tickets which had put a question mark on transparency and his integrity.