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‘Cash-for-banana’ report sent to Election Commission, says collector

CM clarifies it was for bananas fruit-seller had offered.

SALEM: A report on the controversy over the AIADMK co-coordinator and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. Edappadi K. Palaniswami paying some cash to a roadside woman fruit vendor during his last leg of campaign for the Lok Sabha polls in Salem on Tuesday, has been sent to Election Commission of India (ECI).

A video clip of the brief episode, as Mr. Palaniswami walked on the Bazaar street here along with AIADMK candidate Mr. Saravanan, seeking votes with pamphlets has embarrassed Chief Minister. It gave the impression that he was giving ‘cash-for-vote’.

But Mr. Palaniswami himself later clarified that he had only given the fruit seller some money for a bunch of bananas that she had offered.

When reporters drew the Salem district collector and returning officer for Salem parliament constituency, Ms Rohini Bhajubhakare’s attention to this report in the media on Wednesday, she said that a report on the episode had been sent to ECI.

Meanwhile, the collector along with other officials today meticulously oversaw the transportation of the EVMs, VVPAT machines and other polling materials to all the polling stations in the district, from the ‘strong room’ at a private college here.

The EVMs and other paraphernalia were segregated Assembly segment and booth-wise with the corresponding number markings on each of them and were sent from here to their respective destinations across the district by trucks amid tight police security. Polling takes place on Thursday.

Ms. Rohini said for the 11 Assembly segments in Salem district, 1,169 polling stations had been set up with 3,288 booths. Of them, 243 polling booths have been identified as very sensitive and additional security provided for them, the collector said. In Salem parliamentary constituency alone, 172 of the 1,803 polling booths have been found to be very sensitive and more security provided for them. The process of dispatching the entire poll materials including EVMs to all the polling stations in Salem district will be completed by Wednesday evening, she added.

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