In the month of October, during the byelection for Dubbak assembly, police on ‘credible information,’ on October 26, raided the house of a relative of BJP candidate M. Raghunandan Rao and seized about ₹ 18.67 lakh cash at Siddipet town and stated that the money was meant for distribution during elections. A high drama took place and it was alleged that the BJP workers snatched away the money. Five of them were arrested and lodged in Sangareddy district jail. They were released on bail after Mr. Raghunandan Rao become MLA.
Four days after that and two days ahead of polling on November 1, the police again ‘found’ ₹ 1 crore being transported in a vehicle. During checking of vehicles the amount was seized and the police stated that the money was meant for Dubbak byelection.
Prior to these two incidents also police seized some amount from Mr. Raghunandan Rao’s personal assistant and another person on the grounds that it was meant to be distributed among voters in the Dubbak Assembly constituency.
Surprisingly, so far no reports have been made by the police of money being seized in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), spread across 24 Assembly constituency limits, including Patancheru in Sangareddy district, even though the campaign is over and polling is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
“Every party is distributing money to voters to buy votes and it is an open secret. The payment ranges between ₹ 1,000 and ₹ 3,000, depending on the locality and number of votes the particular party needs in that division. Somehow, police have not bothered about distribution of money to voters, unlike in the case of Dubbak, where they were hyper-active,” commented leader of a political party on condition of anonymity.
It was learnt that a party has distributed money among a section of voters not to vote for a particular party as part of its electoral calculations. On the other hand voters too are also expecting money to be distributed. “We will take money from political parties but will vote for whom ever we wish,” said some youth at Bandlaguda in Patancheru area.
