05-13-2008, 08:29 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Cash upsets caste in poll </b>
Pioneer.com
Kumar Uttam | Mangalore
Candidates paying voters directly
More than a thousand kilometres away from this election-bound State of Karnataka, when bigwigs of political parties finalised the names of their candidates in New Delhi, they took care of all minute details of caste combinations.
But things here at ground zero have gone totally different from what they had expected and planned.<b> "Cash" has disturbed all "caste combinations</b>" in the State Assembly election that has almost been censored by the Election Commission of India.
The unwritten "ban" on almost every overground way of electioneering has left political parties here with no other option but to reach out to the voters individually and dole out "whatever" they could to woo the electorate.
It was after more than 600 km drive from Bangalore, climbing up to Hassan and Chikmagalur to drive down the costal cities of Udupi and Mangalore, that this correspondent encountered a public meeting of a regional party at minority-dominated Mani village on the outskirts of Manglore city.
After an exhausting drive, the first sight of an election campaign was so tempting that we could not resist stopping the car and interacting with the men in white kutra-pyjamas. Knowing my limitations with Kannada, my driver Anand, a local resident, chipped in.
<b>"They (workers of this regional party) threw a dinner for us last night. Many 'other things' were also served and a lucky few got a few hundred rupees as well.</b> They wanted us to come for the meeting and we did. There is no harm," confided one of the persons in the gathering.
The revelation was not astonishing. A poll manager in the Congress office at BC Road, another hamlet on the outskirts of Mangalore, admitted the cost of election had increased manifold as there was no other option but to reach out to individuals or group of voters seeking their votes. "Our campaign starts in the evening. Throughout the day we just sit idle, without much work," he admitted.
A senior BJP leader told The Pioneer over phone from Hubli, where the party has shifted its base for the second round of election on May 16, that the money being spent on one Assembly segment this time was in no way less than what they used to spend on a parliamentary constituency in earlier elections.
<b>Meanwhile, the scene in the constituencies going to poll in the second phase on May 16 is no different from the first phase. No posters and banner defacing the walls, no blazing loudspeaker to pierce the ears of the voters and no rallies to catch the attention of the voters -- it is almost "curfew" like situation in Karnataka in the "festival of democracy". </b>
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Pioneer.com
Kumar Uttam | Mangalore
Candidates paying voters directly
More than a thousand kilometres away from this election-bound State of Karnataka, when bigwigs of political parties finalised the names of their candidates in New Delhi, they took care of all minute details of caste combinations.
But things here at ground zero have gone totally different from what they had expected and planned.<b> "Cash" has disturbed all "caste combinations</b>" in the State Assembly election that has almost been censored by the Election Commission of India.
The unwritten "ban" on almost every overground way of electioneering has left political parties here with no other option but to reach out to the voters individually and dole out "whatever" they could to woo the electorate.
It was after more than 600 km drive from Bangalore, climbing up to Hassan and Chikmagalur to drive down the costal cities of Udupi and Mangalore, that this correspondent encountered a public meeting of a regional party at minority-dominated Mani village on the outskirts of Manglore city.
After an exhausting drive, the first sight of an election campaign was so tempting that we could not resist stopping the car and interacting with the men in white kutra-pyjamas. Knowing my limitations with Kannada, my driver Anand, a local resident, chipped in.
<b>"They (workers of this regional party) threw a dinner for us last night. Many 'other things' were also served and a lucky few got a few hundred rupees as well.</b> They wanted us to come for the meeting and we did. There is no harm," confided one of the persons in the gathering.
The revelation was not astonishing. A poll manager in the Congress office at BC Road, another hamlet on the outskirts of Mangalore, admitted the cost of election had increased manifold as there was no other option but to reach out to individuals or group of voters seeking their votes. "Our campaign starts in the evening. Throughout the day we just sit idle, without much work," he admitted.
A senior BJP leader told The Pioneer over phone from Hubli, where the party has shifted its base for the second round of election on May 16, that the money being spent on one Assembly segment this time was in no way less than what they used to spend on a parliamentary constituency in earlier elections.
<b>Meanwhile, the scene in the constituencies going to poll in the second phase on May 16 is no different from the first phase. No posters and banner defacing the walls, no blazing loudspeaker to pierce the ears of the voters and no rallies to catch the attention of the voters -- it is almost "curfew" like situation in Karnataka in the "festival of democracy". </b>
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