I am writing this post on 13-Feb-2017 and will be casting my vote for Assembly elections on 19th in the Lucknow - East constituency. Today morning I was chatting with my elder cousin and he wondered who are the candidates from the main parties in our constituency. The only one both of us could immediately recall was the BJP candidate. Well, unlike others, the BJP candidate and his organization have made some minimal efforts to reach out to the voters. After scratching our heads for some time we could recall another name, that of the BSP candidate. The name, Saroj Shukla, led to speculation about the candidate's gender. As regards the SP candidate, no amount of scalp scratching helped.
So finally we decided to Google out the information using the free data on our Jio enabled phones. BSP candidate's full name, Saroj Kumar Shukla, resolved the confusion that we earlier had about him. And it was a surprise to find that SP had not fielded any candidate from our constituency. It seems that this one has gone to their ally, Congress. We found a few independent candidates and also discovered the existence of a few parties that we had never heard of.
Yes, there is a total lack of communication from our candidates. They aren't using even the low cost channels like SMS and other sundry messengers. But then it could be my DND subscription that is to blame.
What is clear is that there is no canvassing whatsoever from individual candidates: Well, at least, not in the urban areas. All our inputs are either from televised rallies or the debates on TV channels. If the rallies, which are a big public nuisance, could be eliminated the present scenario will represent a very low cost electioneering with costs far below the prescribed limits. Another desirable change in such a case would be to give some airtime to independents and nearly unknown parties too to level the playground.
As all canvassing is being done by party chiefs only, one fails to understand why the parties are fielding tainted candidates in the name of winnability. People are focussing merely on the parties and not even looking at the candidates, (nor are the candidates looking to the public for winning.)
I think the time is ripe for implementing the suggestion that I had mooted earlier in THIS POST.
My cousin did point out that the scenario could be very different in the rural areas where perhaps bulk of the election expenses were being incurred.
So finally we decided to Google out the information using the free data on our Jio enabled phones. BSP candidate's full name, Saroj Kumar Shukla, resolved the confusion that we earlier had about him. And it was a surprise to find that SP had not fielded any candidate from our constituency. It seems that this one has gone to their ally, Congress. We found a few independent candidates and also discovered the existence of a few parties that we had never heard of.
Yes, there is a total lack of communication from our candidates. They aren't using even the low cost channels like SMS and other sundry messengers. But then it could be my DND subscription that is to blame.
What is clear is that there is no canvassing whatsoever from individual candidates: Well, at least, not in the urban areas. All our inputs are either from televised rallies or the debates on TV channels. If the rallies, which are a big public nuisance, could be eliminated the present scenario will represent a very low cost electioneering with costs far below the prescribed limits. Another desirable change in such a case would be to give some airtime to independents and nearly unknown parties too to level the playground.
As all canvassing is being done by party chiefs only, one fails to understand why the parties are fielding tainted candidates in the name of winnability. People are focussing merely on the parties and not even looking at the candidates, (nor are the candidates looking to the public for winning.)
I think the time is ripe for implementing the suggestion that I had mooted earlier in THIS POST.
My cousin did point out that the scenario could be very different in the rural areas where perhaps bulk of the election expenses were being incurred.
