Chennai: Did every voter go out to vote in the bypolls at the Tirumangalam constituency or did the politicians rig the elections, resulting in a virtually unheard of turnout figure of 89 per cent.
It is a turnout figure that is so high that it is even left the Election Commission worried over what really happened in Tirumangalam, Tamil Nadu.
“It could be because of the quality of rolls being better. But there's another dimension and it's being alleged that the polling percentage shot up in the last one hour of polling and that needs some investigations. As far as we are concerned we are probing into the role of officials and the lapses,” Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu Naresh Gupta said.
During the campaign, both the DMK and AIADMK alleged that voters were being lured with money.
Jayalalithaa's party AIADMK recently released a video which the party claims is proof that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin was distributing money to voters. AIADMK also alleged that the turnout figure proves that there was large scale rigging by the ruling DMK.
However, Propaganda Secretary of AIADMK Dr M Thambidurai said, “How is it possible that there was 30 per cent polling in one hour? This is absolutely rigged and the Election Commission has been misused by the DMK for their own purposes."
The DMK, which won by a margin of close to 40,000 votes says the turnout is a sign of its government's success.
The Election Commission which had ordered a severe crackdown during the campaign is now seriously looking into the role of the officials in charge of several polling booths.
Whatever the end result the Tirumangalam bypoll will perhaps go down as one of the most controversial by-elections in recent times.
Source: ibnlive.in.com/news
