The campaign for the April 13 Assembly elections started in Tamil Nadu on March 24, with a massive programme attended by the AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa, DMDK leader Vijayakant and the leaders of the CPI (M) and CPI. And now the fear of their worst-ever defeat is haunting the DMK-Congress alliance headed by the infamous Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
The things that are haunting them most are the unprecedented price rise, 2G-spectrum scam, massive power cuts in the state, rising unemployment, increased migration, illegal large-scale sand mining, massive failure in agricultural and industrial development etc, to name only a few.
Now, a frustrated DMK supremo and his partymen are vehemently accusing that the Election Commission of India is working against them. The reality is that the ECI is only implementing the code of conduct and acting against those bribing the voters.
Karunanidhi has accused the Election Commission of imposing excessive restrictions and unilaterally transferring officials. The EC was acting in an “unprecedented manner,” he said in a statement.
BRIBING THE VOTERS
As for the commission taking preventive actions to stop voter bribing, Chief Electoral Officer Praveenkumar said, “It is a cat-and-mouse game. They come up with new methods and we try to plug them.” He asked more information from the public about politicians paying cash for votes. Already 40,000 cases have been filed for violation of the model code of conduct, he added.
By March 20, according to Praveenkumar, the authorities had taken action on 105 cases pertaining to bribery and seized around Rs 9 crore in cash.
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A newspaper report says by the said date the total value of the seized money and things like sarees, dhoties , wrist watches, cell phones, silver home appliances etc, was around Rs 17 crore.
In Tiruchi, a few days ago, revenue officials and income tax officials went to the house of a DMK office bearer following a tip-off and wanted to conduct a search. But they were stopped by the DMK cadre who are close to the Transport Minister K N Nehru. They even threatened the officials against entering the house and ‘advised’ them to beat a retreat. Only after holding talks for two hours with the DMK strongman could the officials enter the house.
At Madurai, a committee monitoring the model code of conduct investigated an allegation that voters were being given cash at DMK MLA P Moorthy’s residence. It may be recalled that Moorthy had tried to relay a road in Kulamangalam area on March 21. As the people gheraoed him and started airing their grievances, this came to a halt and the earth mover was impounded by the people, citing it as a poll violation. Irked by this, Moorthy instructed his party functionaries in the area to woo the voters from there to come to his house.
The Opposition, which was keenly watching the development, passed the message to the collector who then sent a squad. Meanwhile, Moorthy have threatened the officials by stating that in another 19 days he would show them who he was. The officials could not continue their search of Moorthy’s residence as some DMK men had started intimidating the officials.
On March 29, the Election Commission informed the Madras High Court that there were complaints about money being distributed in police vehicles and by some police personnel.
Senior counsel G Rajagopalan, appearing for the EC, informed this during the course of his arguments on the petition filed by state fisheries minister and DMK candidate K P P Samy.
In its submission, the EC also listed the places where money was drawn, taken to and in the houses it was kept. In all, 2,900 cases were registered and the EC was taking action against the police officers who distributed money. Some names were shocking, Rajagopalan added. He also said some police officers had leaked out information before a search was conducted.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam reserved orders after hearing both the sides.
Report in People’s Democracy, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of India Marxist, by S P Rajendran, April 3