RK Nagar bypoll may be cancelled after cash-for-votes scandal hits TN govt
Chennai/ New Delhi: By-elections in Chennai’s RK Nagar constituency may be cancelled, Election Commission officials said on Sunday according to a report.
An NDTV report, quoting sources, said that after a cash for votes scandal surfaced on Saturday, allegedly implication the Sasikala faction of AIADMK, EC will decide on Monday whether to cancel the bypoll.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and other EC officials will take the decision after they examine reports sent by Income Tax officials from the state and Centre.
On Friday, IT officials said that they had seized documents showing transaction details of Rs 89 crore, allegedly linked to the RK Nagar poll expense of AIADMK candidate TTV Dinakaran. Raids across Tamil Nadu on Friday, including at the residence of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, had unearthed the documents.
Seven senior AIADMK leaders including chief minister Edappadi K Palanisamy, who are members of election working committee of AIADMK (Amma), had been tasked with distributing money to voters, and targets had been set for the same, said IT officials.
As per the available documents, the 256 booths and the total 2.63 lakh voters were divided among CM Palanisamy, school education minister K A Sengottaiyan, Rajya Sabha MP Vaithiyalingam, forest minister Dindigul S Srinivasan, electricity minister P Thangamani, local administration minister S P Velusamy and finance minister D. Jayakumar — and accordingly money, running into crores of rupees, was divided for distribution.
While Rs 13.13 crore was listed against Sengottaiyan with 37 booths for him to handle, CM has 38 booths with 13.27 crore listed against him. A sum Rs 11.13 crore is listed against Vaithiyalingam with 33 booths, while Srinvasan had 36 booths to take care and Rs 12.83 crore is listed against him. The documents showed Rs 12.67 crore listed against P. Thangamani him and 37 booths are given to him for handling. S. P. Velumani has 42 booths and Rs 14.91 crore listed against him while Jayakumar had 33 booths with Rs 11.68 crore listed against him.
Health minister Dr C Vijayabaskar was working under SP Velusamy, a document showed. A senior I-T official said that a report on the document showing distribution of money to voters has been passed to the Election Commission of India in New Delhi through the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
"Similar documents were seized from the house of Vijayabaskar, MLA hostel room and a lodge in Egmore during raids. Vijayabaskar had admitted it and signed the document seized from his residence," IT official said. The minister had also tendered an apology for using his driver to throw away certain documents and handed over the same documents later to the I-T investigators.
Income tax officials believe that the money distribution was almost over because they had been doing it systematically with 7 ministers in control. The income tax official said that they would certainly investigate the sources of money.
