The pathetic state of society and politics in Tamilnadu-Direct Trail points to CM & 5 Ministers-RK Nagar by-polls could be countermanded after I-T raids. Income tax investigators found Rs 89 crore in the possession of Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar during raids at 35 locations.
The RK Nagar by-election could be countermanded after gross violation of model code of conduct and corruption was discovered to be taking place before the April 12 by-poll. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will be submitting its report to the Election Commission on Saturday regarding the 35 raids conducted by the Income Tax officials on state health minister C Vijayabaskar, his relatives and party officials in three Tamil Nadu districts, during which Rs 89 crore was found in his possession.
Documents seized by I-T officials from TN health minister C Vijayabaskar's premises on Friday point to not only planned distribution of close to Rs 90 crore to RK Nagar voters by the TTV Dhinakaran group, but also the involvement of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, five of his cabinet colleagues and a Rajya Sabha member of the party.
Papers indicate that the party had identified 2.24 lakh of the 2.63 lakh voters (85% of the electorate) to be bribed at Rs4,000 per voter. They show ministers K A Sengottaiyan, Dindigul C Srinivasan, P Thangamani, S P Velumani and D Jayakumar were the key men. Rajya Sabha MP R Vaithilingam is the seventh key player on the list.
This core team was apparently assisted by a host of ministers and MLAs including transport minister M R Vijayabhaskar, co-operation minister Sellur K Raju, industries minister M C Sampath, Adi Dravidar and tribal welfare minister V M Rajalakshmi, tourism minister Velamandi N Natarajan, backward classes minister S Valarmathi, former minister and Aravakurichi MLA V Senthil Balaji and Madurai north legislator V V Rajan Chellappa.
I-T officials said, to facilitate easy monitoring of money distribution, the party had divided the constituency into 256 divisions. Close to Rs15 crore - the maximum - was allocated to Velumani to garner 37,291 votes. Going by the papers in the department's custody, Palaniswami was drafted for bribing 33,193 voters and was allocated Rs13.27 crore for the purpose. Sengottaiyan was next on the list, with a target of purchasing 32,830 votes at Rs13.13 crore. In all, Rs89,65,80,000 was distributed to the seven key election office-bearers of Dhinakaran's election campaign, going by the document.
The graphic details of the money trail were printed on a special letter pad with 'R K Nagar assembly constituency byelection 2017: Candidate T T V Dhinakaran' printed on top. In the first column on the letter pad, the key election managers' names are printed. The second column shows the number of areas the constituency has been divided into, for electioneering. The third column has the total voters in each region and the fourth one shows the targeted electorate for bribing. The amount disbursed is mentioned in the last column, but curiously enough, there is no mention that the figures refer to money. Divide the total amount by the targeted electorate, and you get the per voter amount of Rs4,000.
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