Given that public memory in India fades quickly, let’s begin by revisiting a significant political development from 2017. The demise of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa left the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Chennai vacant, prompting the Election Commission to schedule a bypoll for April 12, 2017.

Everything was proceeding normally until April 9, just three days before polling, when the Election Commission (EC) issued a statement saying: “Voters are being influenced on a large scale through money, gifts, and other inducements. Under such circumstances, free and fair elections are not possible. Voting is therefore postponed.”

Earlier, during the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, voting in the Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies had also been postponed because of repeated co

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