Custom Search

Campaigning or Convincing is over on 28th Jan for the Uttarakhand Assembly election to be held on 30th January, 2012, Modes and methods of campaigning used in the elections and its implications


So today legally speaking at 5 pm, after almost a month’s ordeal (at least a bigger part) of the politicians is supposed to be over. But that ordeal will be a deciding factor in their coming five years.
However some would be more aggressive now in clandestine manner playing some of the known strategies or cheap strategies to woo the floating voters mostly comprising of overconfident but ignorant and confused youths. (Hope you understood what I said).

So everyone in the arena tried almost every common and even uncommon activity and the tactics to win the favor of the voters in their constituencies. After all if substantial work had been done on ground level then perhaps there would no need of the campaigning! Isn’t it?

Some were cajoling the voters through the politician type of promises and assurances given on their behalf through their wives. So who dares to go against the “home minister” of house? But the efficiency (output/input in scientific terms) of this method is not doubted by many. Ask some candidates in Dehradun seats and they will vouch for this method.

Ladies wearing make-up and going door-to-door distributing handbills or so was also common sight. I saw in newspaper one well known candidate even sent his young girl to his territory for campaigning. Cache of cash supposed to be used in convincing seized at many places. And I also heard that someone was distributing Samosas in one village. So if those samosas can work wonder!

Well I have heard of Cocktails earlier too. And this had been last ditch effort in earlier instances also. I personally saw two old pahadi Granny campaigning in their own way.  Literally speaking when they entered the chamber no one expected that they would hand over a small pamphlet of a candidate.
Some Candidates were seen on scooters and cycles or on foot campaigning for themselves. Irony was that peoples doubted not their credibility but their effectiveness. So someone irrespective of what he/she has done in past with cavalcade of vehicles and campaigners mostly manual labors is more effective?
Who you will vote for?
Actually most of us have ambiguity in our thoughts and deeds.

 Some well known candidates and politicians were also seen and heard by the public, who otherwise remains elusive and inaccessible and will surely become out of reach again till next campaigning or you can then have their exclusive glimpse in the news on TV or paper and for some other reasons most of them would not be related to what they are saying to you right now.
Opposition parties were crying for mainly for development and corruption though interpreted in their own term without going deep into the available ground level reports and data from almost each and every constituency of Uttarakhand.
Important issues like unemployment and migration from the hill areas were no where in the picture.
But after all the poor junta don’t ask for these matter when beloved netaji comes to them.
We wave hands to them, jostle to get their autographs, congregates to hear them making statements against other politician or party or have a glimpse of them.

If you observe them carefully most of them in maximum time during their rally would be telling you what are wrong doings of the other party or the opposing candidates but very few or less time will be devoted to telling you that what he/she has done for you.

Specially designed songs and announcements even disturbed us when attending any phone call on roads. Some still ringing in my head like earworm (a relatively new term given to a jingle or song or something of that sort that keeps coming to your mind even if don’t want it rather it can become obnoxious at times)
Manual labors and the vehicles owners did good business. There could be more instance some of them might be funny some are brazenly making mockery of the so called democracy.

A disgusting real example is that from some villages in Pauri, families living there have already decided to vote (one caste families will vote for one party and others will vote for other party) in spite of the condition of roads in those villages. Netaji visit there and give them treat (including goat meat etc.) but no one has gut to ask for the roads and other amenities. And probably he/she would win again from there.
 Take another instance; I read a survey article in “Times of India” regarding the ground level condition of dalits in neighboring UP. People in lower voice say that they need jobs rather than the alms but when asked to choose the leader they unanimously like to prefer…  So whose mistake?
Of course it is not Netaji’s fault.

Perhaps they are short of alternatives but where alternatives are there we don’t want to change our ingrained biasness. We don’t want to try changes.

Well friends fault finding is easy but what can be done to rectify it? That is the question we should think of. But again when I see some well educated persons more than often blindly prejudiced and don’t see a bigger picture or try to apply unbiased mind. It really hurts. Why it is so?
 Share your comments with us if you could find or suggest something unique.

Some other poll related articles:

Latest Comments

Powered by Disqus

Information archive