Madurai awoke this morning to the news that Union chemicals and fertillisers minister MK Alagiri has threatened to sue distrcit magistrate Sagayam and Superintendent of police Asra Garg, over what he terms as harassment and filing of false cases against him. The buzz is also that the R5.2 crore seized last night from a passenger bus in Tiruchi was meant for distribution among voters as polling day, April 13, is only a week away.
These two events encapsulate one of the untold themes of this election, the role of the Election Commission and thw serious crackdown on money power. Till date more than R30 crore has been seized by the EC and sources say with more central revenue services officers being requisitioned by them specifically for the Tamil Nadu polls, the figure could go higher.
?It is unprecdented in Madurai that money power is not being able to be deployed properly,? said S Balachander, a part of a citizens group in the city which is committed to clean up elections. ?Where once money used to be moved around in cars and jeeps openly for disbursement, now we have recovered cash from ambulances and hearses,? he says.
In all of this, MK Alagiri, the big man of this small town, has been specifically targeted. Two FIRs have already been lodged against him and all his transactions are being followed closely. One other thing being followed closely by the election commission is the morning newspaper disbursement routine. The reason for it is simple and requires a bit of explanation as well.
?Weeks before the elections, voters lists are prepared and checked out, each cadre member is given the responsibility of one locality or another. Come election time, cash, crisp bank notes of R500 and R1,000 denomination are slipped into the morning papers sent to various households, and in all cases, the recepients are told as to who has sent the money,? said a top source in the district administration. There is always a sudden spike in newspaper readership during election times, and the term, ?can I borrow your newspaper? acquires a whole new meaning.
Madurai is Alagiri?s turf, and the gateway to the deep south. Here he is battling not just a resurgent AIADMK and Jayalalithaa but also the Desiya Morupokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and Vijaykanth. With the election commission nipping at his heels, Alagiri can be forgiven for feeling a little hunted. Chief election commissioner SY Quraishi told FE that nipping bribery in elections is a little more diffiuclt than making sure elections are peaceful and without intimidated. ?In bribery, the bribe giver and taker are both complicit, nobody complains, therefore other means have to be found to catch it,? he said.
It seems that in Madurai, the EC has mastered the trick.