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The real reason behind EC cancelling by-poll to Jayalalithaa's RK Nagar constituency

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TS Sudhir
TS SudhirApr 10, 2017 | 20:23

The real reason behind EC cancelling by-poll to Jayalalithaa's RK Nagar constituency

Given the precedent set in Thanjavur and Aravakurichi last May during the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu — when elections in these two seats were called off — it was a no-brainer that RK Nagar would go the same way. In fact, the buzz that the seat represented twice by J Jayalalithaa will not see an election on April 12 was doing the rounds for the past one week.

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It was quite apparent that the Election Commission even with 61 flying squads and surveillance teams, 10 companies of Central Armed Police Force, 70 mobile parties, six special observers, over a dozen income tax and sales tax teams, was not able to win the battle against more street-smart political operators.

Suspicious of many insiders leaning towards the ruling party, the EC shunted out 22 police officers, 18 revenue officials and 11 municipal officials. Yet at the end of the day, the amounts of money it seized was just the tip of the iceberg. With politicians eager to bribe and voters waiting to get free cash, the EC found itself to be like the police in an Indian film who always arrived late.

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Whoever wins will stake claim to Jayalalithaa's political legacy.

A constituency of lanes and bylanes, this lower middle class locality held the key to Fort St George, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu. Whoever wins it will stake claim to Jayalalithaa's political legacy. Which is why the high stakes battle saw the ruling party go all out in its bid to have the voters on its side.

Traditionally, the opposition parties never win a by-election in Tamil Nadu.

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RK Nagar looked set to upset that trend. Because the Sasikala camp and its candidate TTV Dinakaran was not exactly leading in the popularity stakes in RK Nagar while the Panneerselvam camp had fielded a local E Madhusudanan as its candidate. The DMK candidate, Maruthuganesh, was a local as well, making it more of a contest between the DMK and OPS camp.

But as the EC order details, the attempt to "seriously vitiate" the election process has meant the by-poll simply cannot be held in this atmosphere.

It holds the top political leadership squarely responsible for this. Several instances of voters being bribed with Rs 4000 for a vote came to light, even though the Dinakaran camp has denied any wrongdoing on his party's behalf. But what sealed the case for the EC was the documentary evidence that income tax teams found during its raids at 35 locations in Tamil Nadu, most of them related to health minister C Vijayabaskar.

The most incriminating document has as its subject "RK Nagar Assembly constituency by-election 2017: Candidate TTV Dinakaran". It lists out in great detail the 256 divisions, the RK Nagar constituency has been broken down to, and if genuine, points to how chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami, five ministers and one Rajya Sabha MP were put in charge of netting between 30,000 and 40,000 voters each. The target electorate was 2.24 lakh voters who had to be allegedly bribed with Rs 4,000 each.

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The total amount allocated to the seven VIPs was Rs 89.65 crore.

Palaniswami, according to the document seized from Vijayabaskar's accountant's office, was asked to garner 33,193 votes for which he had been allocated Rs 13.27 crore. The municipal administration minister SP Velumani had been allocated Rs 14,91,64000 to bribe 37,291 voters.

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There is no one coming out smelling of roses in a Tamil Nadu reeking of corruption.

Another document allegedly prepared by Vijayabaskar's accountant is a mirror to the rampant corruption taking place under the minister's watch. It mentions huge amount of bribes collected from college and hospital managements and money given to doctors and even journalists. The ministers and all those mentioned in the document have now been summoned by the income tax department.

Team Dinakaran has alleged a BJP hand in the I-T raids as they were aimed to tarnishing the party name. The candidate has called the documents fake and denies anything was found at the minister's residence.

The BJP has denied any role in the raids even though on the ground, the perception remains that the ruling party at the Centre is more than keen that the Panneerselvam camp should win this election.

Legally, many of these documents would not stand scrutiny which perhaps explains the enthusiasm in releasing the documents reportedly seized from Vijayabaskar's residence. It is apparent that the anti-Dinakaran camp wants to win the perception battle against the Sasikala camp.

At the same time, the OPS camp would be relieved that the by-election was put off because it was not sure how much of an impact the bribing would have had on the voters.

As far as the state is concerned, the fact remains that there is no one coming out smelling of roses in a Tamil Nadu reeking of corruption. That includes the voters who were happy to make hay while the sun shines.

Not that bribing of voters is a new phenomenon. In 2009, under DMK rule, Thirumangalam constituency saw rampant bribing of voters and it came to be known as the "Thirumangalam Formula". But RK Nagar has put Thirumangalam to the shade.

In the past one month, administration of the state has come to a grinding halt with RK Nagar being priority number one.

While the EC works out ways to be one up on the parties when RK Nagar goes to polls next, Tamil Nadu could do with some governance for a change.

 

Last updated: April 12, 2017 | 11:07
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