Tuesday, October 18 2005 17:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Election Commission has directed the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) to file cases against political functionaries who had allegedly stuffed bulk applications of bogus names for inclusion in the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu where assembly polls are due early next year.

EC sources said out of a total of over 19 lakh applications filed till May 31 this year, nearly 13 lakh had been rejected after field verification.

The Commission has directed the EROs to immediately proceed to file the necessary complaints with the concerned magistrate in all those cases.

Complaints should be filed in all those cases where it has been found that the claimants were not ordinarily residing at the address given in Form six, were found below the age of 18 years even on the last day of filing claims and objection and did not own the signature on the application and it was signed by somebody other than the applicant or other than the number of his or her family.

Action should be initiated against all those who were found to have filed false claims in bulk in any of the three categories without any discrimination. "The action initiated in all such cases should be vigorously pursued till their logical conclusion", the sources said.

The DMK had given a memorandum to the EC seeking action against the ruling AIADMK men it had alleged were responsible for filing bogus applications.