Chennai: Money plays big part again in bypoll

CHENNAI: The Thirumangalam poll formula of heavily bribing the voters to buy their support came back to haunt Tamil Nadu on Friday. While it is common knowledge that voters are being offered financial inducements ahead of every by-election that has taken place in the state in the past decade, only rarely had a person or a group of people been arrested for bribing voters.

With the battle for RK Nagar intensifying, allegations have been flying thick and fast in the past few days from every political party that their rivals are distributing  money. After one such incident was captured on video a few days ago, the Chennai Police on Friday arrested 53-year-old Karunamoorthy for bribing voters. Police and EC sources said Karunamoorthy was bribing voters on behalf of AIADMK (Amma) candidate TTV Dhinakaran in Shastri Nagar in Old Washermenpet. “The video which was captured by someone went viral and the person identified as one wearing a hat (symbol of Mr Dhinakaran) was arrested on Friday,” police sources said.

The bribery took place after Dhinakaran left the spot following the end of his campaign in the area. Rampant use of money power in by-elections began in 2006 when the then Madurai DMK strongman MK Alagiri, son of then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, allegedly resorted to a splurge of currency to ensure that his candidate won the election, decisively defeating the AIADMK local strongman Rajan Chellappa in Madurai Central constituency.

Since then bypolls have become synonymous with use of not just money power but inducements stooping to any level— gifts of household items besides free flowing liquor — and the trend was followed even in general elections. And it was the same Tamil Nadu that woke up to seizure of '570 crore from containers in Tirupur on the eve of the 2016 assembly elections that saw J. Jayalalithaa retaining power. Added to money power is the unchecked misuse of power and official machinery that has become identical with bypolls in Tamil Nadu.