Parties go ‘independent’ way for poll spend

“Both the DMK and AIADMK functionaries are secretly funding a few independents, but we are not able to crack as there is no direct evidences in this regard,” a confidential official on poll duty told DT Next.

For the August 5 polls, a list of 28 candidates are in the fray. Of this, only two candidates are from Election Commission (EC) recognised political parties and another eight are from registered regional parties without EC recognition. As many as 18 candidates are independents and a few of them are working closely with the ruling AIADMK and DMK.

To ensure more vehicle permission and for logistics support at the time of polls, the party managers are funding selected independents. There are no provisions to book poll violation cases without evidence, but such understanding is becoming common in the state where cash for vote is predominant, the official said recalling that Tamil Nadu is now a notorious state in the country where the polls have been rescinded due to large scale seizure of cash aimed to induce voters.

The poll officials on Monday also released the final list of voters which is 14,32,555 after the recent deletion and inclusion of voters.

Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo also reviewed the implementation of model code of conduct with Vellore poll officials.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission also announced restrictions for publication and dissemination of results of opinion and exit polls. “The Election Commission has stated that in exercise of the powers under sub-section (1) of Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Election Commission, having regard to the provisions of sub-Section (2) (b) of the said Section, hereby notifies the period between 7 am and 6 30 pm on August 5, 2019 (Monday), as the period during which conducting any exit poll and publishing or publicising by means of the print or electronic media or dissemination in any other manner, whatsoever, the result of any exit poll in connection with the General Election to Vellore Parliamentary Constituency shall be prohibited,” read a notification by the EC on Monday.

The notification also clarified that under Section 126(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, displaying any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey, in any electronic media, would be prohibited during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll for the aforesaid election.