It is reported that the in the next couple of days, the State Election Commission might come out with an announcement about conduct of by-polls in Chennai’s R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency.

Vacated with the demise under mysterious circumstances of former Tamil Nadu chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa in December last year, R.K. Nagar was to vote on 12th April to elect its representative in place of ‘Amma’. The poll, however, was cancelled at the very last moment after complaints of large-scale indulgence of ‘cash-for-vote’ by leading parties in the poll fray.

Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti had said a few months back that the by-poll would be conducted by the end of the year. State Election Commission moved the High Court of Madras stating that it can’t take a decision about conducting by-poll in R.K. Nagar as plenty of cases had been filed with the Court regarding the cancellation of the by-poll which was to have been held in April.

Taking up the petition, a Bench headed by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee directed the Election Commission to conclude the process of holding by-polls in R.K. Nagar by 31st December. It also directed that announcement/notification about holding the by-poll should be released by the first week of December.

It is said that Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhani would be leaving for New Delhi in a couple of days to discuss with the Election Commission the modalities of holding the by-poll after which he would be making a formal announcement about the poll schedule. It is strongly rumoured that the by-polls might be held before Christmas.