Chennai: The BJP has alleged that the ruling AIADMK, opposition DMK and T.T.V. Dhinakaran supporters are employing rental cars from other districts to distribute crores of rupees to the voters in RK Nagar Assembly constituency facing the December 21 bypoll. The saffron party also claimed that vehicles from other districts are used for poll campaign, much against the election rules.
“We find persons in groups of five or ten gather, meet voters and pass on signals and information. Yesterday and the day before too they had distributed cash and gifts, ignoring all poll norms, shamelessly”, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan who petitioned the Chief Electoral Officer on Sunday, said. “We fear the situation will affect the conduct of free and fair elections”, she said and claimed that the money was distributed between 10 pm and 5 am without any let up.
As per their modus operandi, voters are asked to meet them outside the constituency and are offered money. In the case of Dhinakaran, who is contesting as an independent, the voter needs to show the cooker, which is his symbol, when the candidate comes for canvassing. “It seems that the money is distributed prior to the candidate's visit and display of cooker indirectly conveys that the money was already received by that particular voter”, Dr Tamilisai said.
Even though the Election Commission has prohibited door to door canvassing after 5 pm, the rule is violated and “misused by the above parties for money distribution” she said and added “ in all the wards of the RK Nagar constituency, money has been distributed to the tune of several crores. We have lodged a complaint to the returning officer of RK Nagar.”She requested the Election Commission to take necessary action against the parties engaged in distributing money to voters and take steps to ensure a free and fair election.
