Chennai: A tsunami of happiness has inundated RK Nagar. Most of its 2.28 lakh voters for the December 21 bypoll are smiling even as the ‘ground reports’ insist that pana-pattuvada has already begun and is galloping at brisk pace with both the Dravidian majors and the ‘star rebel’ actively engaged.
“The going rate for a vote is said to be between Rs.2000 and Rs.8,000. The cops and election officials appear lethargic and uninterested even if they get alerts”, a source closely associated with the ‘official monitoring’ of pre-poll irregularities revealed.
Even as the Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni is bombarded by petitions from almost all the parties, barring of course the ruling AIADMK, alleging huge distribution of cash-for-vote, the Central observers seem to be all at sea as their coordinates with the local officials do not seem to be working. “Only three seizures of cash, totaling Rs.5,21,600 have been made so far. And 500 pressure cookers were picked up from a van entering RK Nagar today (Monday). What about all the rest of the big distribution that has been going on merrily?” wondered another hapless officer.
“Do not expect any major seizures and such proclamations this time. Whatever needs to reach the voters have already been arranged through ingenuous means. Nothing will be transacted within the constituency and so the eight Central observers, most of whom are strangers to local terrain, will find little or nothing”, he said.
One source on the ground said while one Dravidian party has allocated Rs.5000 per vote, its rival in the Opposition is working on a figure less than half of that and hoping that its candidate “could still win because of the public anger against the ruling parties in the state and at the Centre”.
The ‘star rebel’ is said to be offering Rs 8,000 per vote, while reminding the happy beneficiaries they were already paid half that sum the last time and the total booty works out to a staggering Rs 12,000.
“It’s 1,000 rupees per day if I go for rallies for a top candidate. The fee for aarathi is Rs 500 and Rs 200 if I sprinkle flowers from the balcony”, said a local revenue official. He requested anonymity for obvious reasons. According to him, some 'star' candidates get 'fans' to produce their children for naming; of course, there is bribe for the photo op. “If there are four voters in a family, it can expect a total booty of about Rs 85,000 by the time the EVMs are taken for counting,” said a retired schoolteacher.
It's great to be a RK Nagar resident at times like this, though the constituency is otherwise in terrible mess in every way as people are content collecting the poll-time bribes and make no demands thereafter for their betterment", said a retired schoolteacher.
"There are still nine days, and nights. We will be witnesses to a lot of excitement. We only hope there will be no breach of law and order in the process. And we hope that the poll will not be cancelled this time, because we are a tired of this very expensive circus", said the revenue official quoted earlier. He did look very tired, already.
