BENGALURU: An election candidate or party worker looking to buy some votes for this Lok Sabha elections may be met with boards affixed to gates of homes, saying ‘My vote is not for sale’. Money changing hands in the run-up to the election season is an open secret. In a bid to encourage people to desist from giving away their votes to politicians for a one-time sum of money, the citizen group, Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC), started the campaign a week ago.
“The target areas where vote-selling happens are usually slums, and middle and lower-middle income households. We are targeting these neighbourhoods, where we speak to people and explain to them why selling their vote is not going to solve any of their problems. If they vote for such a candidate, they would remain in the slums, with the same problems related to water, housing, infrastructure and development. We explain to them that we need good governance and not money,” Raghavendra Pujari, coordinator of BPAC, said.
So far they have conducted the awareness campaign at Byatarayanapura, Amrutahalli, Mahalakshmi layout, Govindarajanagar, Jayanagar and Sahakarnagar. The response to the initiative has been mixed.
“A few slum dwellers agreed with our views, while others said they would take the money if it were offered. We are convincing such people that their lives will not improve if they elect such candidates. Once they come to power, they will look at earning back the money they shelled out for campaigning but will not focus on the constituency’s development,” Pujari explained.
The campaign will go on till April 14, Nisarga Jagadish, a civic leader at BPAC, said. “We gathered a few political party leaders, and members of voluntary organisations to assemble at Mahalakshmi Layout and urged residents not to sell their vote. We told the parties to canvass as they do and encourage people to come out and vote. We plan to cover more areas in Bengaluru before the polling begins.”
The move also aims at educating people about demanding their rights when candidates and party workers come knocking on their door, said Revathy Ashok, the group’s managing trustee and CEO. “With repetitive drives such as this, the narrative will change and politicians will be forced to ask people what they want.”