The fate of the April 12 by-poll for the RK Nagar Assembly seat, which was represented by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, hangs in the balance with the documents recovered in the I-T raid revealing the distribution of Rs 89 crore to voters at a rate of Rs 4,000 each.
The money trail in the cash-for-vote in the RK Nagar by-poll now leads to none other than Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami himself and his top ministers, according to the document recovered during the Income Tax (I-T) raids at the official residence of Health Minister Dr C Vijayabaskar and premises linked to him.
The fate of the April 12 by-poll for the RK Nagar Assembly seat, which was represented by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, hangs in the balance with the documents recovered in the I-T raid revealing the distribution of Rs 89 crore to voters at a rate of Rs 4,000 each. A senior I-T official said that a report on the document showing the distribution of money to voters has been passed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi through the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Vikram Batra, director (expenditure), ECI, who was appointed as a special chief electoral officer for the RK Nagar by-poll, rushing to New Delhi on Saturday evening has given rise to speculation that the election might be postponed in the wake of strong evidence of money distribution to voters.
The raid took place days ahead of the crucial by-poll where the Sasikala camp, O Panneerselvam camp and Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar were fighting to claim the political legacy of the late AIADMK supremo, with the DMK seeking to reinvent itself after the political vacuum created by Jayalalithaa’s demise.
A copy of the document, which is in the possession of DNA, shows the names of the election working committee members formed by AIADMK (Amma) — the CM, School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, Rajya Sabha MP Vaithilingam, Forest Minister C Sreenivasan, Electricity Minister P Thangamani, Local Body Minister SP Velumani and Finance Minister D Jayakumar — mentioned in tables along with the amount of money that was purportedly distributed.
According to the document, which was seized from the room allotted to Mr Vijayabaskar in the MLA hostel in Chepauk, the RK Nagar constituency has been divided into seven parts and each part has been assigned to one leader. A total of Rs 89.65 crore has been divided among the seven leaders, which in turn will be distributed to at least 85 percent of the total number of 2.63 lakh voters.
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 "Edappadi K Palaniswami")
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