The power-hungry politicians and their followers in both AP and Tamil Nadu openly admitted that they had violated the election commission’s model code of conduct during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, according to an informative story published in The Hindu, India’s highly respected English daily.

Politicians Karti Chidambaram of the Congress, M. Patturajan, confidant of Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers M.K. Alagiri and former Mayor of Madurai, and Member of Parliament Assaduddin Owaisi of the Majlis-e-Ittenhadul Muslimeen told a visiting US consulate team they had bribed voters with cash, and in the form of goods or services to get votes during the Lok Sabha elections.

The US consulate officials sent the details of this formal conversation to their state department through a cable on May 13, 2009. The Hindu got access to the cable through WikiLeaks.

“Bribes from political parties to voters, in the form of cash, goods, or services, are a regular feature of elections in South India. Poor voters expect bribes from political candidates, and candidates find various ways to satisfy voter expectations. From paying to dig a community well to slipping cash into an envelope delivered inside the morning newspaper, politicians and their operatives admitted to violating election rules to influence voters. The money to pay the bribes comes from the proceeds of fund-raising, which often crosses into political corruption. Although the precise impact of bribery on voter behavior is hard to measure, it no doubt swings at least some elections, especially the close races,” says the cable sent by the US consulate officials to their state department.