Miscellanea / A Ganesh Nadar

'When a voter gets money from both sides he'll think with a balanced mind'

Over the last year villagers had added 170 people to the voter's list. These people actually belonged to neighbouring villages. Prabhakaran sent telegrams to the state electoral officer and the district electoral officer asking them to verify this additional list. The revenue officials descended on the villages suddenly. They found that only four out of the 170 names were genuine. The villagers were livid, but they couldn't do anything.

Nagaraj was canvassing only in his own village. He didn't bother about the rest of the panchayat.

Manoranjan, the youngest candidate, was campaigning with his young friends when Ganesh passed by in Rajarathanim's car. Manoranjan's friends started hooting Ganesh. The candidate didn't bother to reply, though he was visibly irritated.

October 6

It being a Sunday, campaigning began early in the morning. Cars, vans, motorbikes raced in opposite directions. Small kids stared in amazement. They had never seen so many cars in the village.

In every street, people had grievances. Most complaints were about water. Some were about electricity, a few about ration cards. One lady demanded a job for her daughter. All the candidates promised to do the job.

A definite trend, a wave could be seen now. Manoranjan and Nagaraj dropped out of the race.

Damodarapandian retired in Murugesan's favour. Some alleged a transaction was involved. Others refuted it. Ganesh and Prabhakaran ignored it. They had never considered Damodarpandian as serious opposition.

October 7

Campaigning was supposed to end at 5 pm. Ganesh ended his campaign with loudspeakers blaring right in the heart of South Nalumavadi. On the last day, Murugesan also had a propaganda van touring the entire area.

It was 9 pm. in the night. Rumours were flying that the candidates were distributing money for votes. Ganesh decided to investigate. Rajarathinam sent a car to North Nalumavadi carrying Vel Nadar and two others. The car stopped in front of one of their supporter's homes. With a squealing of brakes one car stopped exactly in front of this car, another stopped behind it. It was like a scene out of a Hollywood action flick.

Vel Nadar ignored them with great difficulty, and walked into the hosue. They ware whispering inside when Murugesan barged in. "Did Kandasamy come here?" he asked. "No!" said the bewildered house owner. Murugesan walked out.

Vel Nadar come out and got into the car. The driver honked. The car in front refused to move. The driver put his head out of the car. "Why don't you move?" "Why don't you move?" shot back the worthy. "You reverse," said Vel Nadar. "There's a car at the back," said the driver. "Just reverse a little, then I'll get down and talk to them," said Vel Nadar. The car reversed. The car in front moved away. Vel Nadar heaved a sigh of relief. The car was followed halfway by two motorbikes.

On hearing the news Ganesh said, "Let's take the Contessa and go there, we'll see if they dare to do anything." Rajarathinam vetoed the idea. "I don't want any problem before polling," he said. Vel Nadar said, "that fellow says that he has heard rumours but he hasn't seen money actually changing hands." "Everybody keep your ears to the ground, the minute you are sure they have distributed money in a particular area, we'll do the same. When a voter gets money from both sides he'll think with a balanced mind," Rajarathinam said.