Chennai: Tamil Nadu with 234 constituencies has set an all India record by seizing unaccounted cash of Rs 104 crore, which is nearly 70 per cent of total seizures in poll-bound states till Friday.
The state has surpassed total cash seizures made by West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry, confirmed Election Commission sources. In West Bengal, (polling is over) the seizure was around Rs 21 crore and in Kerala it crossed Rs 23 crore, whereas in Tamil Nadu the seizure by income tax department alone was Rs 27 crore and another Rs 66 crore by police surveillance teams. In smaller states like Assam and Puducherry, the seizure totalled Rs 17 crore, the sources said.
“More FIRS are yet to come as police in some pockets are not co operating. Saturday and Sunday will witness a further surge in number of FIRs and arrests”, a top official in the Election department told DC. In the past three days, as many as 101 cases had been registered with police arresting more than 70 persons for distributing cash and freebies, he said.
“What was called the 2009 ‘Thirumangalam formula’, where cash-for-votes rained in Madurai has now become a big menace for EC. Despite surveillance and monitoring, curtailing the movement of cash remained a Herculean task,” the officer said adding that both Dravidian majors accounted for 80 per cent of the poll related complaints. From the date, model code came into vogue, so far 3,000 cases related to serious poll violations had been booked. Of this, both DMK and AIADMK top the list.
When contacted, Chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni said a system had been put in place to record the maximum number of complaints from the common man and political party representatives. When pointed out that DMK and opposition parties are leveling charges on poll officials, he said public can have faith in the Rs 200 crore democratic exercise and look for free and fair polls, “but I cannot respond to political comments.”
Former chief electoral officer Naresh Gupta said everyone was asking a similar question and there are reports of massive seizures. “The political scenario in Tamil Nadu has changed a lot in the past six years, where my understanding about the issue is outdated.”
