CHENNAI: Parties including the two AIADMK factions battling for the RK Nagar seat left vacant by J Jayalalithaa may pump in as much as Rs 50 crore to bribe voters, state intelligence agencies have estimated.Ingenious poll managers, over the years, have mastered the art of influencing voters by distributing cash, gold rings, gift tokens redeemable at grocery shops, besides doing bank transfer and mobile phone recharge. Women who receive money are made to swear by their children and thali (mangalsutra) to vote for a particular party. Topping the doles are liquor bottles and biryani packets on April 12, the polling day.The election commission would have a tough time in ensuring a free and fair election, felt observers. A senior official said some candidates were expected to distribute Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 each to up to 70,000 voters in the constituency, which has 2.62 lakh electorate. “The logic is that on an average, only 75% people vote. In a multi-cornered election, anyone who gets more than 70,000 votes wins,” the official said.Though the history of bribing voters can be traced to the 19th century elections in the US where voters were given cash or promise to cover their property tax payment, and the notorious spendthrift election of 1768 in Northamptonshire in the UK where earls spent several million pounds to win seats, it got institutionalised in India with the ‘Thirumangalam formula’ of January 2009 assembly byelection. Its architect was the DMK. Voters in Thirumangalam received money in envelops slipped into their houses and tucked inside morning newspapers. In the 2016 election, state police busted the AIADMK’s efforts to transport money using fake ambulances and arrested kingpin C P Anbunathan of Karur.The Election Commission is yet to figure out ways for conducting fair elections, said former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami. “Each party appoints one party worker for every 50 voters to distribute money. By no stretch of imagination can the election commission shadow roughly 3,000 people engaged in money distribution. When the giver and the taker are happy, it is difficult to curb the menace. Unless someone comes forward and says that he was paid money by a particular party or candidate, the EC cannot prove it before a court of law and without doing so, no candidate can be debarred from contesting election,” said Gopalaswami.Countermanding the election is the only option the EC has when there is large-scale complaints of money distribution. It yielded little result though in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur in 2016, where both the AIADMK and the DMK candidates were accused of bribing voters.At best, the commission can raid the premises where fake marriages and fake birthday parties are organised to distribute money, said Gopalaswami, referring to one such raid on a marriage function in Karnataka in 2008. A better way to curb the menace is cleaning up the administration. “Only if politicians can make money as MLA or MP will they give money to voters to win election,” he said.Meanwhile, the law makers are in the process of giving finishing touches to an EC proposal to make bribing of voters a cognizable offence under Section 171B of the Indian Penal Code so that police can arrest the culprits without a warrant.