The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. As election season draws to a close, it's polling day in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
2. After the murder of Rajdev Ranjan, Siwan bureau chief of Hindustan, his wife reports threats calls by a strongman from the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
3. The Centre now seeks public opinion on whether passive euthanasia should be made legal.

The Big Story: Watching Tamil Nadu

The Election Commission has been busy in Tamil Nadu. A few days ago, it asked both the All Indian Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to explain how they would make good on the tall promises in their manifestos. Now, it has postponed polling in Thanjavur and Aravakurichi constituencies till May 23, after it found parties liberally distributing cash among voters. On Saturday, it chased down trucks in Aravakurichi bearing money, saris and other largesse. This large-scale dissipation had vitiated the atmosphere for polls, the election watchdog felt.

Clearly, the Election Commission is determined to make the contestants in Tamil Nadu behave. This is a worthy pursuit. Ever since the electoral reforms of the 1990s, the commission has been enthusiastic about cleaning up the poll process. It has imposed the Model Code of Conduct strictly, cracked down on the massive corruption that distorted verdicts and made arrangements to keep the peace during poll time. The commission's efforts have gone a long way in strengthening Indian democracy, restoring credibility to political processes after the scam-ridden decade of the '90s. But even the most activist Election Commission cannot root out the rot that runs deep in some political cultures.

In Tamil Nadu, where the two Dravidian giants have traditionally fought it out, corrupt practices are woven into the exercise of political power. The DMK has expanded its sphere of influence through massive business and media empires. AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa has built up a grand political persona through very public opulence, which unfortunately drew the attention of the law and earned her a few disproportionate assets cases.

During election time, it is a given that both parties will lavish cash and goodies on the electorate. Reporters on the ground have found voters are complicit in the cash-for-votes racket. Deeper changes are needed to end these practices – people's expectations from politics would have to be reset, the pact between voter and elected leader reworked. Policing by the Election Commission can only go so far.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story
Sandhya Ravishankar on how postponed polls show cash-for-votes has permeated Tamil Nadu politics.

Politicking and policying
1. With the National Investigating Agency having exonerated Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and withdrawn charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit, both accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, the Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to come down on the Congress for creating the "bogey" of Hindutva terror.
2. Sanctions by the United States block payments to Iran, creating worries for India, which had been hoping to make good on a pending bill of $6.5 billion.
3. The home affairs ministry official who had gone missing after he was charged with removing files in the case against activist Teesta Setalvad has been arrested in Delhi.

Punditry
1. In the Indian Express, Suhas Palshikar on how the BJP is faring better in its promise of "Congress-mukt Bharat" than on "acchhe din".
2. In the Hindu, Neera Chandoke on the dumbing down of Indian politics.
3. In the Business Standard, Devangshu Datta says the resilience of the Indian economy could be hit by a further slowdown in global growth.

Don't Miss...
TK Devasia on how the BJP could decide the outcome of the Kerala polls:

While everybody agrees that the NDA would make inroads into the traditional vote banks of both the fronts, it is still not clear which grouping the saffron party will harm most. Political observers had earlier thought that the BJP’s alliance with BDJS could affect the LDF the most, since the lower caste Ezhavas were the backbone of the Communists since its emergence in the state.

But the local body elections held in November last year proved this assumption wrong, with the UDF losing a third of the local bodies it won in the 2010 elections. Political observers believe this could be because of a shift in political allegiance by the creamy layer in the Ezhava community, which traditionally backed the UDF, towards the NDA.