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A Ganesh Nadar

'Why are you pushing out bogus voters? You are supposed to arrest them'

In the morning, Ganesh phoned the Nazareth police station and complained that the opposition was using intimidating tactics. He mentioned the car incident of the night before. The cop replied that there was already a complaint against Ganesh. The complaint said Ganesh had sent a man with money to bribe voters and Murugesan had sent two cars to check if money had actually changed hands. Ganesh was baffled. He told the cop his side of the story.

Supporters of all the three candidates distributed voter's slips. This distribution took all day.

Polling day

Polling started at 7.30 am. Ganesh cast his vote at 7.45 am. Prabhakaran had left earlier. "All the other candidates are already touring the area, you are late, check out all the polling booths, see if our booth agents are in place," said Rajarathinam. Ganesh left immediately.

He was surprised to see crowds outside all the 10 booths he visited. In the east Nalumavadi booth he joked with one of the voters inside the polling station. Kamaraj screamed from outside, "Inside the booth, you are allowed to talk only to your agent or the presiding officer; don't canvass!" Ganesh's agent Senthurpandian got up and shouted, "Who the hell are you to tell my candidate what to do?" Ganesh pacified his agent and went to Kamaraj. "I wasn't canvassing," he said. "Don't lie!" said Kamaraj. The village headman, who was present, ordered "Ganesh, you carry on, Kamaraj - you also move." Both left.

Ganesh was moving out of the Panickanadarkudieruppu booth when Murugesan arrived. He pointed an accusing finger at Ganesh. "I just heard that you are canvassing inside the booth. You better stop before I start, I don't want a dispute between us," he warned. "From our side, we will not start anything," Ganesh assured him - the tone implying that he was prepared for anything.

There was a lot of tension in the north Nalumavadi booth. Narayan Nadar (the booth agent) informed Ganesh that 15 people had been detected trying to cast other people's votes. Ganesh asked the presiding officer, "Why are you pushing out bogus voters? You are supposed to arrest them." "I can't do that without a written complaint from you," the official said. "I'll give you as many complaints as you wish, arrest the next bogus voter who walks in," said Ganesh.

In the next booth, an argument had erupted between a booth agent and a bogus voter. Ganesh caught the man and handed him to the presiding officer who, in turn, turned him over to the policemen present. The man was put in one corner. He started pleading with folded hands.

Ganesh sat down and started writing a complaint. Two villagers belonging to south Nalumavadi called Ganesh out. "That fellow is a poor field labourer; don't put him in, he'll be there for at least six months. We assure you that there will be no more bogus voting."

Ganesh tore the paper. The man ran away. It was the wisest thing Ganesh had done that day. About 50 bogus voters had assembled at a little distance from the booth. The man he had released went and told the crowd that he had missed going to jail by a whisker. All the men fled. They didn't wait for the van which had brought them there.

At 3 pm, Prabhakaran was standing outside the PNK booth. One of his friends informed him that about 25 bogus voters had assembled outside the Shunmugapuram booth. Prabhakaran sent word to his supporters and raced to Shunmugapuram on his motorbike.

There were more than 25 people assembled about 50 feet from the booth. Prabhakaran screamed at the policeman who was guarding the booth. "These people do not belong to this village at all, don't let them in." "I can't do anything," the cop said. "Then why the hell did you come here?" demanded Prabhakaran.

The bogus voters started approaching Prabhakaran menacingly. Two of Prabhakaran's supporters ran to protect him. A few of Ganesh's supporters also ran to protect Prabhakaran. Election or no election, they all belonged to PNK and they were not going to let anybody touch a PNK man. The bogus voters retreated. Five cars arrived in full speed and Prabhakaran's supporters ran out, prepared for a fight.

There was nobody to fight, but everybody screamed for a while. Then they went to their respective places outside each booth.

Rajarathinam also toured the entire area, stopping outside every booth for a while. All the candidates had people roaming around in cars. This was just a show of strength.

At 4 pm, another bogus voter was pushed out in the north Nalumavadi booth. How many actually got away with it - nobody knows.

Polling stopped at 5.30 pm. Luckily, nobody had come to blows.

The results were out on Monday. Prabhakaran got 808 votes, Ganesh 768 votes, Murugesan 738 votes.