The Election Commission's two identical orders, found here and here , postponing assembly elections in the two constituencies of Thanjavur and Aravakurichi in Tamil Nadu, makes for some strange reading.

In both, the EC admits that the current electoral process:

>... "has been seriously vitiated on account of unlawful activities of the candidates and political parties and their workers in bribing the electors and unlawfully inducing them by offering money and other gifts of consumable items to woo them in their favour."

The orders say that allowing the electoral process to proceed and to conduct the poll on 16 May as scheduled would seriously jeopardise the conduct of free and fair polls.

However, by postponing the elections in the two constituencies by just one week and holding them on 23 May, the EC said that it hopes, without any evidence whatsoever, in one week:

>... "the vitiating effect of the money power created by the distribution of money and gift items to the electors of the constituency loses its intensity and a more congenial atmosphere conducive to the conduct of free and fair election is created"

Meanwhile, a PIL has been filed in Madras high court seeking directions to the EC to withhold the results of the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, on the ground that the EC has claimed seizure of Rs 100 crores of unaccounted money and has stopped three trucks carrying Rs 570 crores without proper documents on 14 May, as reported recently.

Tamil Nadu election rigging commission postponement order by legallyindia