CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin has moved the Madras high court challenging the election of TVK candidate V S Babu from the Kolathur constituency in the concluded 2026 assembly election.According to Stalin, he sought permission from the Election Commission (ECI) to inspect the voting machines used in the Kolathur constituency. After obtaining permission, a team of advocates inspected the voting machines that had been kept at Chintadripet.An engineer appointed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) was also present during the inspection in which the votes recorded in 100% of the VVPATs and EVMs were compared. He pointed out that discrepancies were detected at six polling stations when the votes recorded in the EVMs were compared with the VVPAT slips. Following this, an authorised election representative wrote to the election officer concerned.Alleging that irregularities had occurred at several polling stations, the former chief minister has sought the commission to implement a transparent procedure for filing complaints relating to voting machines. He has specifically alleged that hardware and software-related technical problems occurred in several voting machines.The election petition seeking to declare the election of Babu as null and void is likely to be listed for hearing in a day or two.
