Should polls be put off in Tamil Nadu: SC to EC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the EC’s response to a PIL seeking deferment of Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu on the allegation that there was rampant bribing of voters by politicians.

Later in the evening, the EC postponed polls in Vellore LS constituency because of seizure of huge amounts of illegal cash.

Appearing for petitioner K K Ramesh, advocate C R Jaya Sukin told a bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna that the EC was proposing to postpone elections to one constituency because of circulation of large amounts of illegal cash, but going by the same logic, LS elections in all 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu should be put off.

“Each voter is being paid a bribe of Rs 5,000 by politicians in the hope of securing her/his vote. There is at least Rs 10,000 crore of illegal cash being pumped into the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu to bribe voters,” Sukin said.

The bench asked the petitioner to supply a copy of the petition to EC counsel Amit Sharma and asked him to get “necessary instructions (from the EC) in the matter”. The SC posted the matter for detailed hearing on April 22. Till April 1, the EC had seized Rs 208.55 crore cash from various persons, suspected of being used for bribing voters, in Tamil Nadu.

The commission declared dates for Lok Sabha polls on March 10 and as per EC data for all states, Rs 340.78 crore suspect cash, Rs 143.84 crore worth of liquor, drugs valued at Rs 692.64 crore, gold and other precious metals worth Rs 255.93 crore and other freebies worth Rs 26.84 crore have been seized.