Three elections have been cancelled in a span of one year, the latest being the byelection to the R.K. Nagar constituency in North Chennai, which had fallen vacant after Jayalalithaa’s death.
Has Tamil Nadu perfected the art of cash for votes?
The cancellation, after Election Commission, argued that systematic bribery of voters had vitiated the atmosphere to such an extent that free and fair poll was not possible in the constituency, has put a black mark on the electoral record of the state.
“The Commission is fully satisfied that the current electoral process in the said 11-Dr.Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly Constituency in Tamil Nadu has been seriously vitiated on account of unlawful activities of the candidates and political parties and their workers by bribing the electors and unlawfully inducing them by offering money and other gifts of consumable items to woo them in their favour,” it said in a detailed 29 page order.
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In 2016, the commission had cancelled polling in Thanjavur And Aravakurichi after both AIADMK and DMK were found bribing voters.
The free flow of cash, just after the demonetisation drive aimed at curbing black money, has put a question mark over the efficacy of the money-scrubbing exercise.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while announcing the demonestisation decision on November 8, had said that the move would curb blackmoney besides getting other positive results.
Congress leader P Chidambaram today took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking if his demonestisation drive has achieved the desired results.
"We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?," the former Finance and Home Minister said in a tweet.
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In RK Nagar, TTV Dinakaran, Sasikala’s nephew representing the AIADMK (Amma) and former Minister E. Madhusoodhanan (AIADMK PT Amma) are locked in a battle to establish who the real AIADMK was even as the DMK candidate Marudhu Ganesh had nosed ahead due to the split in the AIADMK. The scrapping of election is a blow to Dinakaran camp which spend massive energy and money to quell the popular resentment against the them.
Dinakaran’s chief minister ambition has got setback.
The massive deployment of money power by the Sasikala group to bribe voters in a planned and systematic manner was the final nail. Though the EC had replaced most top police and revenue officials and engaged hundreds of central government forces to monitor and check movement of vehicles, it was unable to prevent the Sasikala group from distributing Rs.4,000 per voter.
The tipping point was the April 7 income tax raids on Health Minister C. Vijaya Bhaskar’s official residence in Chennai and 12 other places belonging to him and his associates that unearthed Rs.5 crores in cash. More damning was the seizure of an incriminating document that showed that the Minister had distributed Rs.89 crores among top Ministers and functionaries including the Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami for further distribution among various segments in R.K. Nagar to reach the voters.
The next few days would also see the income tax department summoning and questioning of Vijayabhaskar and probably other Ministers found in his list to know about the source of the funds and where exactly the money went.
