Opposition alleges money power behind Jayalalithaa's election victory

Chennai: The 2016 Tamil Nadu assembly elections proved the urgent need for electoral reforms in the state, said a retired top Election Commission official. Referring to the conduct of the assembly elections, former chief election commissioner of India T.S. Krishnamurthy told IANS, “This only proves the urgent need for electoral reforms.” He said the ‘first past the post’ system has to be changed and the mode of funding the elections should also change. “Instead of allowing the corporates to donate to political parties, they should donate to a fund called National Election Fund. The corpus will be used to conduct the polls. The expenditure by the candidates should be totally banned,” he said. Leaders of political parties in Tamil Nadu which lost in the recent polls have alleged that money power played a major part in their rout. [caption id=“attachment_2791460” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of J. Jayalalithaa. Reuters[/caption] “We tried to form a Third Front against AIADMK and DMK but were not able to fight the money power,” R. Mutharasan, Tamil Nadu state secretary for CPI, told reporters. MDMK leader Vaiko, reacting to the assembly election results, said: “It was the money power that won in the 2016 assembly elections. All the parties in our alliance - Peoples Welfare Front - will work together in the state against the money power and protect democracy.” Similarly, PMK founder S. Ramadoss also said the two Dravidian parties used their money power to win the assembly polls. According to Krishnamurthy, the poll body should have the power to enforce its Model Code of Conduct for parties during elections. The poll body is not able to act against the parties or their candidates if they violate the Model Code of Conduct.