Complaints of cash-for-votes at Sholingur

A total of 186 co-op societies run by nine government departments were scheduled to go to the polls on  Monday. 

But as directors (members) were elected unopposed in 162 societies earlier, elections were held only for 22 societies where no consensus was possible. It may be recalled that no nominations were filed for two co-operative societies. 

At Sholingur, around 50 kilometres from Vellore, elections to the local milk cooperative society was a direct contest between the AIADMK and the TTV Dinakaran led AMMK. 

As winning the contest was seen as an issue of prestige, highly placed sources told DT Next that money was paid to the nearly 300 voters a day in advance. The source claimed that the ruling party doled out Rs 1250 per vote, while its rivals reportedly gave around Rs 1000. 

However, no untoward poll related incident was reported in the district.