: The infamous ‘Thirumangalam formula’ seems to be at work in Thiruparankundram Assembly constituency in Madurai, where by-polls are due on November 19.
For instance, on Sunday, a well-dressed youth knocked the doors of Parvathi, a resident of the constituency, and surprised her by handing over Rs. 1,500 in cash. Not knowing who he was, the woman asked him the reason behind his “generosity”. “Please vote for party X” was apparently all that the youth said before he hopped to the next door to continue with his ‘mission’.
As news spread, many residents in the constituency preferred to stay at home lest they missed out on the distribution. A total of 28 candidates are in the fray for the by-poll, necessitated by the demise of S.M. Seenivel, the successful AIADMK candidate who passed away even before he could take oath as a member of the Legislative Assembly. Though the AIADMK, the DMK, the BJP, the DMDK and Naam Tamilar Katchi among others are contesting, the real fight appears to be between the two Dravidian parties.
Modus operandi
When The Hindu correspondent went around some of the areas in the constituency on Monday, many youngsters who have been assigned the task of of distributing cash to the voters said that they are paid a daily wage of Rs. 500 (Rs. 400 plus Rs. 100 bata ) by the party managers. “Our job is to hand over cash to as many as 100 households daily in the locality as instructed by the party,” one of them claimed. While one party paid Rs. 500 per vote, another gave Rs. 1,000 per vote. Depending on the locality, the cash is increased. At the same time, money is not given to dwellings where top officials or businessmen resided, they clarified.
In their “mission”, the youths are assisted by local ward members of the respective political parties who provide them with details like the number of households in a particular street, the number of inmates in each house/flat, and the number of men and women voters among others. Based on the inputs, the money is given for distribution. The youths also said that their job does not get over with this. On the polling day, they have to ensure that all the residents from each street turn up at the polling booths to cast their votes.
By entrusting the task of distributing money to the youths of the same area, political parties could avoid unnecessary controversy, a political observer said.
Poll officials in the constituency, however, said that they had not received any complaints so far regarding cash for votes.
Madurai District Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao said that public can lodge a complaint with the poll officers concerned or with the general observer appointed for overseeing the electoral process about any attempts to bribe voters.
