CHENNAI : Elections in many parts of Chennai turned out to be a low-key bribing affair for political parties. Political cadre were seen distributing ‘biryani’ packets and bottles of alcohol to those willing to sell their votes. This resulted in good business for biryani centres, which received hundreds of orders an hour. In most cases, the biryani and alcohol were distributed to voters by party cadre entrusted with handing out voting tokens.
”The Election Commission does not have the manpower to give voting slips to people. So, we offered to help them,” said a party functionary at Chitlapakkam, claiming it also gave them an opportunity to remind voters of the ‘political conditions in the country’ before they cast their vote. “They asked us to vote for their party and so we will get free food,” said Kumara Guru*, a resident of Robertson lane at Mandaveli, claiming he was whisked away by partymen after he cast his vote and was given Biriyani packets after he confirmed he had voted for their party.
He claimed his wife and parents received packets from four different political parties, shedding light on the extent of the ‘food for votes’ bribery that was in play in the city on poll day. Interestingly, it was not just the party cadre that was feeding people with bribes, in some cases people insisted on taking bribes for votes. “Do you want our votes or not?,” asked a woman demanding lunch for her entire family from the cadre after receiving her voting token at Sembakkam, near Tambaram.
In most of these cases, the bribes were given by the party along with the voting tokens and took place in close proximity to polling stations, but election officials turned a blind eye to it. “It is true, we don’t have enough people to give voting tokens to people,” said an election official at a polling station at Tambaram.