chennai we all know necessity is the mother of invention the election commissions crackdown on cash distribution has resulted in candidates reaching out to voters through digital transfers and gift couponsvoters at sembakkam and madambakkam in east tambaram have started to receive gift coupons through couriers which they can later redeem at supermarkets food outlets and retail stores value of the coupons range from 500 to 1000 the election commissions flying squads will never be able to track such bribes said r govindarajan from the federation of residents welfare associations in tambaram forwasome political parties approached residents groups in their vicinity and offered donations in return officebearers were told to campaign on their behalf many associations have received amounts in lakhs this election season some in chitlapakkam and ambedkar nagar were even presented with gold nose pins and cookers govindarajan said mohammed ghouse an anticorruptionactivist from ayanavaram said political parties collected mobile numbers of voters during the assembly elections and in the last 10 days started to send rs 1000 per vote directly to them through digital wallets it is so rampant and no longer done secretly he saidone of the major political parties bought bronze lamps and kunguma simils in bulk and started distributing them to voters in tiruvannamalai since sunday evening they will be expanding to chennai from wednesday said arul another anticorruption activistrenga prasad from satta panchayat iyakkam said apart from cash party cadres have continued to distribute household items such as mixies and utensils to voters tokens were also given which they can later use at local grocery stores to buy food items stationery and other essential items he addedone common trend is distribution of towels during doortodoor campaigns when we refused to accept them candidates placed them outside our house and left said shruti a tambaram residentavadi and thiruvallur residents have started to experience power cuts in the evenings we can expect more such outages between 8 pm and 9 pm in the coming days so that it becomes easier for party workers to distribute cash said k bhaskar a residentactivist he said that parties paid up to rs 5000 per head in thirumazhisai areasenthil kumar from makkal needhi maiam said there was hardly any awareness campaign by the state election commission sec to ensure a free and fair electionon monday cash was distributed openly at ward number 176 in velachery and two people were arrested the sec said it had formed 45 flying squads to monitor poll violations they have seized rs 11 7 lakh in cash and rs 1 27 crore worth other items which were carried in private vehicles without valid documents according to official datawith inputs from komal gauthamaiadmk files complaintchennai aiadmk has filed a complaint with the state election commission that dmk cadres in and around namakkal distributed 1000 to women family heads along with fake application forms