Accepting the recommendations of the Election Commission, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday accepted the recommendations of the Election Commission (EC) and canceled the elections in Vellore Parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu following recovery of a huge amount of cash allegedly from a DMK candidate’s office a few days ago. Moreover, polling in East Tripura constituency has been deferred from April 18 to April 23, Tripura deputy CEO Suman Rakshit said.

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Vellore has become the first constituency in India where a Lok Sabha election has been canceled because of cash for votes. The development comes two days after the Election Commission recommended to the President that elections in Vellore be canceled citing the suspected use of money power to influence voters after huge cash seizures from DMK leaders over the last two weeks.

There have been instances when the polls were canceled due to cash for votes. In 2016, polls in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu were canceled due to large scale distribution of money and gifts to voters. The EC had also canceled RK Nagar Assembly election in Tamil Nadu after an allegation of bribing the voters at large scale came to light in 2017.

In connection with the I-T seizures, on April 10, Tamil Nadu police filed an FIR against Anand, and two others, Poonjolai Srinivasan, the owner of the cement warehouse and Damodaran, for their alleged links to DMK and Duraimurugan family. In a late-night move, the EC on Monday had sent a report to the President of India recommending cancellation of polls to the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, following the seizure of large amounts of cash, allegedly stacked up to bribe voters.

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