EC cancels Vellore LS poll hours after campaigning winds up for 2nd phase
The Lok Sabha elections to the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, in Tamil Nadu, scheduled from April 18, has been cancelled, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has said. On Monday (April 15), The Federal had reported that the election was likely to be countermanded and that the EC had sent a report to the President for his approval.
Reports said the President had given his assent on Tuesday (April 16) after the EC took cognisance of the recent cash seizures in the district. Incidentally, the cancellation comes hours after the campaign got over in Tamil Nadu.
On Monday, Tamil Nadu chief electoral officer Satyabrata Sahoo had told The Federal that a report had been sent to the Election Commission in Delhi and a decision was awaited.
On the intervening night of March 29 and 30, election monitoring officials rushed to the house of DMK treasurer Durai Murugan to conduct a search operation. However, DMK cadres who had gathered there stopped the poll officials from raiding the house and demanded for a proper raid order.
Durai Murugan told mediapersons that this was not just pressure [on the election commission] but politics. “People will teach the right lessons to the Modi government,” he said. This was akin to murdering democracy and amounted to directly threatening the opposition, he added.
- Previous cancellations in TN
- Jan-2019 | Thiruvarur: To enable the State government and district administration to continue relief and rehabilitation work after cyclone Gaja battered the district in November.
- Apr-2017 | RK Nagar: The Election Commission cancelled bypolls citing the possibility of cash-for-votes used by politicians, which was a violation of Model code of Conduct.
- May-2016 | Aravkurichi and Thanjavur: The Assembly polls were postponed twice following reports of large scale distribution of money and gifts to voters by the candidates and political parties.
Subsequently, based on the information from the poll officials, income tax officials issued an order to raid Murugan’s house. Murugan’s son, Kathir Anand, is the DMK candidate for the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency.
On the early hours of March 30, I-T officials started the raid and after five hours, officials began a search of Anand’s house in Katpadi. By night, initially police officials said that the I-T officials seized ₹10 lakh from Murugan. However, in the FIR copy there was no mention about the cash.
Subsequently, on April 1, based on a tip-off, I-T officials raided the residence and cement go-down of Srinivasan, a close aide of Murugan, where they seized ₹11.48 crore. But, according to the FIR, the money is said to have been seized from the house of someone called Dhamodharan. Later, Srinivasan voluntarily called and told the I-T officials that it was his money and that he had kept it in Dhamodharan’s house to bribe voters in the constituency.
According to the FIR, based on the statement from Srinivasan, I-T officials assumed that the money was being moved from Murugan and Anand’s houses. “As the poll monitoring officials were initially denied entry into the house and the college (Kingston Engineering College), the money there might have been shifted to the houses of the party cadres after removing the CCTV cameras from the college and house,” FIR reads.
Assuming that the money seized from Dhamodharan’s house belonged to Anand, police booked Anand on charges of filing a false affidavit before the election commission.
Meanwhile, on April 10, Vellore police booked three workers of different political parties for allegedly distributing cash to the voters in the Vellore constituency.
