It seems that political parties in Telangana, which votes tomorrow (Friday) to elect a new Legislative Assembly, has decided to follow the ‘model’ shown by their counterparts in Tamil Nadu. A whopping amount of Rs.120 crores have so far been seized from various party agents/brokers with police and income-tax officials suspecting them to be meant for distribution to the public (read: voters) in time before Friday’s polling.

Tamil Nadu has been reeling under accusations of cash-for-vote scam indulged in by leading (regional) parties at the time of 2016 Assembly polls as well as during the Assembly by-polls prior to and after the Assembly polls. The baffling fact is that the money seized in Telangana is
reportedly more than the combined amount spent in campaigning by leading political parties in the three States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, which voted recently!

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar didn’t appear pleased when he divulged the above data to newsmen yesterday. Political observers point out that this is only an extension of an earlier ‘reality’ that the undivided Andhra Pradesh (out of which Telangana was carved out) had accounted for a whopping share of (46%) the Rs.331 crores of illegal money seized during
the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls which pitch-forked the BJP to power at the Centre.

Officials, however, concede that there could be something ‘more than’ which ‘meets the eye’. “This could just be a very small share of the total money kept for distribution on Thursday,” they say on condition of anonymity!