prasad1
Active member
Acouple of days before Huzurabad constituency in Telangana went to the polls in the high-stakes by-election on October 30, several women staged a protest in at least two locations. Their angst was that they had not been bribed yet.
It is ironic but true that a large part of the electorate in this festival of democracy no longer chants `no development-no vote'. Huzurabad's brazen `no cash-no vote' slogan is the harsh reality of Indian elections today. No wonder the by-election was labelled as `buy' election given how the cash flow threatened to put previous infamous attempts to bribe voters to shame. The going rate ranged from Rs 6,000 to even Rs 10,000 for a vote, with liquor also flowing like water.
This anecdote is important because the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) had forced this bypoll on Huzurabad by sacking Health minister Eatala Rajender, compelling him to quit the party and his MLA seat. The K Chandrashekar Rao government's allegation was that he had violated the law of the land by occupying land meant for the weaker sections. The ruling party accused Rajender, who was till the other day one of its leading lights, of corruption and tried to take the moral high ground on clean politics.
The protest by the women voters in Huzurabad showed exactly why the strategy to label Rajender as corrupt did not work.
www.indiatoday.in
In India Corruption is not a dirty word anymore.
It is ironic but true that a large part of the electorate in this festival of democracy no longer chants `no development-no vote'. Huzurabad's brazen `no cash-no vote' slogan is the harsh reality of Indian elections today. No wonder the by-election was labelled as `buy' election given how the cash flow threatened to put previous infamous attempts to bribe voters to shame. The going rate ranged from Rs 6,000 to even Rs 10,000 for a vote, with liquor also flowing like water.
This anecdote is important because the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) had forced this bypoll on Huzurabad by sacking Health minister Eatala Rajender, compelling him to quit the party and his MLA seat. The K Chandrashekar Rao government's allegation was that he had violated the law of the land by occupying land meant for the weaker sections. The ruling party accused Rajender, who was till the other day one of its leading lights, of corruption and tried to take the moral high ground on clean politics.
The protest by the women voters in Huzurabad showed exactly why the strategy to label Rajender as corrupt did not work.
Huzurabad bypoll: 10 reasons Rajender won the David vs Goliath battle against TRS
Eatala Rajender had quit the Cabinet and TRS and resigned as MLA earlier this year to join the BJP.
In India Corruption is not a dirty word anymore.
