Palghar by-poll: Officers keep an eye on voter bribes using e-wallets

AâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088political rally in Palghar ahead of the Lok Sabha by-poll on May 28

Cash has become harder to use in election fraud, but it turns out that votes may now be going to the person with the fattest digital wallet. Maharashtra officials who were on election duty in Karnataka found that, for the first time, e-wallets were being widely used to illegally pay voters. The rattled authorities will now keep a close eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha by-elections in Palghar and Bhandara-Gondia to ensure the polls are clean.

The Karnataka polls have put election officials in Maharashtra on edge, and not just because of political games. Several police and senior IAS officials who were on election duty down south found that most political parties were buying votes through e-wallets.

An IPS officer told mid-day, "Most of the parties paid the leader of a village or locality via an e-wallet, and that person was then asked to distribute cash among the people. The modus operandi was devised in a way that there was no way to establish a direct connection between the candidate and the pay-offs. This is why no cases were filed.

Illustration/Uday Mohite

"A supporter or an independent entity was given the task of transferring vote money to a local agent's digital wallet. This agent would then distribute the money among the citizens, usually in the form of cash to avoid detection." Interestingly, the officer said this method was used mostly in rural areas, and not in urban centres. Several cases of traditional vote buying were registered using money, jewellery and sarees all over Karnataka.

How to detect it
A senior IPS officer from the state police said that this was a novel modus operandi, and they will keep an eye out for it in the upcoming polls in 2019 as well. He explained, "In each constituency, a committee is formed under the collector to patrol the constituency and seize such bribes during elections. If money were to be distributed using e-wallets in large amounts, then a case could easily be filed, as there would be an electronic trail.

However, the most crucial part will be to establish the link between the person transferring the money and the candidate on whose behalf it was sent." Officials can register a violation of the election code of conduct, which will then be probed by the police.

Palghar on alert
"Since mid-day has alerted us about this information coming in from Karnataka, I will ask our poll officials to be on high alert. If reported to us, or we find it on our own, we will verify such cash transfers," said Dr Prashant Narnaware, Palghar's district collector and chief returning officer. He is currently organising the by-elections to be held on May 28.

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