The Election Commission has initiated an investigation against Sobha Surendran, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Kerala’s Palakkad, for allegedly distributing money to voters ahead of the Assembly elections, The Indian Express reported.

Surendran rejected the claims and described them as a “conspiracy”.

Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Kelkar said that the alleged incident was reported on Wednesday.

Assembly elections in the state are being held in a single phase on Thursday. Votes will be counted on May 4.

Videos circulating on social media and on television channels showed a person offering something to an elderly woman, PTI reported. Subsequently, another group went to her, asked her to open her fist and showed that she had a roll of Rs 500 notes.

It was alleged that the woman was given money by a person in Surendran’s campaign team, the news agency reported. The woman denied having received any money but admitted that she had asked for Rs 5,000 to buy medicines.

The alleged incident took place in Theruvakkurishi under the Kannadi panchayat in Palakkad.

Following the media reports, the district election department sent a flying squad to the site and recorded the statement of the woman who had allegedly received the money, Mathrubhumi reported.

Kelkar noted that although the woman denied receiving money, District Collector MS Madhavikutty told the Election Commission that a detailed investigation was needed owing to the gravity of the matter, The Indian Express reported.

The chief electoral officer added that the investigation will determine whether there was any breach of the Model Code of Conduct or the Representation of the People Act, Mathrubhumi reported.

Further action will be taken after reviewing the district collector’s report, he said.

Surendran, however, described the allegations as baseless and said that this was the tenth time she was contesting an election.

“I know the rules,” The Indian Express quoted the BJP candidate as saying. “Rivals have understood that I am going to win the election. This is a pre-planned script against the BJP. Let the police find out the conspiracy behind it.”

She added that she had also filed a complaint with the Election Commission.

Sharing visuals of the alleged incident on social media, Congress MP KC Venugopal claimed that the BJP candidate from Palakkad had been “caught red-handed distributing cash” on the eve of the Assembly elections.

“All this, while the Election Commission is asleep and blissfully unaware of the electoral malpractice,” the Alappuzha MP said. “It is in the BJP’s DNA to manipulate elections, no matter what, no matter where.”

He added: “This is a crime and the candidate must be punished for this blatant violation of election norms. She does not have the legal and moral standing to continue on the ballot.”