(PTI)
Taking a firm view, the Election Commission tonight cancelled the April 12 bypoll to the R K Nagar Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, saying the electoral process has been “seriously vitiated” by parties through use of money power.
After several rounds of meeting with Tamil Nadu election officials, the Election Commission decided to rescind the election notification.
It said the by-election will be held in “due course when the vitiating effect created by the distribution of money and gift items to allure the electors…gets removed with the passage of time”.
“The Commission is fully satisfied that the current electoral process…in Tamil Nadu has been seriously vitiated on account of unlawful activities of the candidates and political parties and their workers by bribing the electors and unlawfully inducing them by offering money and other gifts of consumable items to woo them in their favour,” the EC said in an order late tonight.
Sleuths of the Income Tax Investigation wing conducted searches in properties and offices belonging to Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on Friday across Tamil Nadu. The searches on premises of an associate of Vijayabaskar has revealed routing of Rs 89 crore for “distribution to voters” in R K Nagar Assembly constituency.Vijayabaskar is a loyalist of AIADMK (Amma) faction’s candidate T T V Dinakaran.
