The political fates of AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, People’s Welfare Front leader Vijayakanth and PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss will be decided by 5.82 crore voters of Tamil Nadu on Monday. The State will vote for a new Assembly on Monday after an intensive 70 days campaign which culminated on Saturday evening.
Elaborate arrangements have been made for peaceful polling in 66, 007 polling stations spread across the Tamil Nadu. In a late night development on Saturday, the Election Commission postponed polling in Aravakurichi Assembly constituency to May 23 following complaints of distribution of cash and gifts to voters. Counting of votes in this constituency will take place on May 25, according to a release by the Election Commission.
The Pioneer had reported about an allegation made by Anbumani Ramadoss, the Chief Ministerial candidate of the PMK that bith the AIADMK and the DMK were involved in large scale distribution of cash and gifts to bribe the voters in Aruvakurichi. The AIADMK’s Senthil Balaji is taking on DMK’s KC Palanisamy, a mining baron and one of the richest candidates in the State.
More than 1.2 lakh security personnel, drawn from State and Central Forces and home giards have been deployed across Tamil Nadu to ensure peaceful polling. Though the campaign was of high-pitch in nature, Tamil Andu could take pride in the fact that no untoward incidents were reported during the period.
The seizure of the “mysterious” Rs570 crore at Tirupur from three container lorries by the flying squads of the Election Commission early Saturday night too was resolved following the State Bank of India’s officials claiming ownership of the money which was being taken to Andhra Pradesh from the bank’s currency chest in Tamil Nadu.
But political observers pointed out that the 2016 Assembly election would go down in history as an election which saw unprecedented deployment of cash for bribing the voters. “At no point of time Tamil Nadu has seen this much money being pumped into the State during an election. That way, this could be a harbinger of things to come in future,” said a political commentator.