With hardly four days to go for the by-election in RK Nagar Assembly constituency, there are allegations and counter-allegations by all major political parties that cash and gifts are being distributed among the electorate to “purchase votes”.
This became intense on Saturday morning with Vikram Batra, a senior Indian Revenue Service officer deputed by the ECI, taking over as Special Chief Electoral Officer to monitor the RK Nagar bypoll. With Batra arriving in Chennai, the number of central observers posted by the ECI has gone upto nine, making it the highest-ever deployment in an Assembly constituency.
Interestingly, Batra was the SCEO when the April 12 bypoll was rescinded in RK Nagar. At the time of going to Press, Batra is holding a crucial meeting at Fort Saint George (Tamil Nadu’s secretariat) with CEO, DGP and other senior officials.
Saturday also saw charges and counter charges made by the contesting parties against each other that money is being distributed openly to solicit votes.
A senior AIADMK leader confided to The Pioneer that all the parties were vying with one another in distribution of cash to bribe the voters.
“There is large scale distribution of cash in the constituency despite the presence of electoral officers and police,” said Maruthu Ganesh, the DMK candidate.
But a senior AIADMK Minister D Jayakumar alleged that there is a secret deal between the DMK and TTV Dinakaran, the former deputy secretary of the AIADMK who is also the nephew of jailed V K Sasikala. “The DMK and Dinakaran are careful not to criticise each other. All their ire is directed against the AIADMK candidate,” said Jayakumar while speaking to reporters at Chennai on Saturday.
The ECI has also deployed 13 company of paramilitary forces in the constituency, making RK Nagar a well-guarded fortress. All lanes and by-lanes are being monitored by closed circuit TV cameras to scan attempts to bribe voters. Though the bypoll was scheduled for April 12, the ECI rescinded it following allegations of large scale cash distribution by some candidates.
“The situation is no different now also. Cash and gifts are being distributed outside the constituency itself,” a source in Chennai Police said. The ECI shunted out five more inspectors from the constituency by Friday evening.
Interestingly, the newly appointed District Returning Officer Praveen Nair and the Special Chief electoral Officer Batra were the officials who were in command of the election procedure in April when the polling was rescinded following their reports.
Some strange developments are also being seen in the pattern of campaigning. The rebel MPs who joined the EPS-OPS faction after the Election Commission allotted the Two leaves symbol and the name AIADMK to the faction are not to be seen in the campaign front.
Navaneethakrishnan and Vigila Sathyanand, the two MPs who met Chief Minister Palaniswamy and told him that they were with him are conspicuous by their absence in the campaign for the AIADMK candidate Madhusudanan.