In a disappointment to the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the Chennai High Court today rejected his application that sought the dismissal of an election petition filed by his immediate rival and AIADMK candidate Mr RS Raja Kananppan challenging his election to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 elections.

Chidambaram told the court that the petition filed by Kannappan was full of defects and was eligible to be dismissed outright.

Kannappan, who lost to Chidambaram in the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 3354 votes, had filed a petition in the High Court seeking the quashing of the latter’s election alleging that the Home Minister’s election agents had resorted to malpractices to get elected to Lok Sabha.

Justice K. Venkatraman, while agreeing that the application was full of defects, said the defects were of curable nature. “The election petition can’t be dismissed just because there are defects in the petition. The defects are not of incurable nature and it can’t be a ground for dismissing the petition,” he said and dismissed the application of Chidambaram.