Kerala’s Chief Electoral Officer Nalini Netto said on Wednesday that the Election Commission had started an enquiry into the allegation that Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, candidate of the Congress-led UDF in Thiruvananthapuram, had held a special meeting of pastors of Pentecostal Church at his residence and offered them money for votes.
Netto said the complaints lodged with the Election Commission in this regard by the CPI(M)-led lDF and BJP had been forwarded to the District Collector of Thiruvananthapuram, who was also chief returning officer, for follow-up action. She told the mediapersons that the allegations were very serious if these true.
A sting video telecast by a TV channel had shown Tharoor asking about 60 Pentecostal pastors assembled at his house in the Kerala capital to speak to the believers of their church to in favour of him. He had also expressed willingness to meet any financial requirements such action necessitated, according to the video.
The video showed Tharoor as telling the pastors that his prospects in Thiruvananthapuram were not bright and in such a situation he needed their assistance. He was seen as referring to the possibility of Narendra Modi coming to power. He also asked the pastors to tell the believers that the allegations against him over his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death were baseless.
Tharoor, sitting MP from Thiruvananthapuram, was seen as telling the pastors that his margin would not be more than 20,000 votes even if he won while this was 99,998 votes in 2009 polls.
The Union Minister is caught in a tough triangular battle in Thiruvananthapuram where his adversaries are lDF’s Independent candidate J Bennet Abraham and BJP’s O Rajagopal.