Campaigning for the 16th Lok Sabha polls : The candidates
- Part 2 -

Yangsorang Rongreisek *

Voting for 1st Phase of Lok Sabha 2009 (Outer) :: April 15 2009

The campaign tests more than the candidate’s mind and conscience. It tests his physical and emotional stamina. Campaigns are hard-work, grueling tests of endurance. The physical strain is apparent to anyone who has watched a candidate maintain the hectic pace of a campaign schedule—a candidate stands and runs to try his luck. The emotional strain is no less wearing.

Throughout the campaign, the candidate is alternatively buoyed up and let down. He is on display like a swinging. Every speech, every word can help or hurt his cause. Besieged on all sides, to express opinions on every issue, he knows he will please some groups and surely lose the support of others. A series of judgments confront him, testing his intellect—and his integrity. This is sure to happen as present voters’ ethos are quite different from what they used to be in the 15th LS poll in Manipur.

The candidate must first decide his position on all the current issues (the crusade of Irom Sharmila Chanu for abrogation of AFSPA, 1958, ILP, Integrity of the State, Overhauling of education structure for making life building education, etc.) On many questions the answer is easy; he has expressed his view repeatedly in the past, and his position in speeches is a matter of record. Some questions are put to him for the first time, and he must find out all he can about them before he can honestly make up his mind.

Inevitably, he faces some issues where there is a conflict between what he personally believes and what position he feels the voters’ desire. Most candidates stoutly claim that they always resolve issues on the basis of their personal views and beliefs. No candidate can preserve his self-respect if he flops about on all issues, taking whatever seems popular at the moment.

The voters expect a candidate to see some evidence that he has a mind of his own and the capacity for creative thought. Yet, even the most independent minded candidate realizes that on some issues he must take into account the wishes of his constituency if he is to have the chance of winning election. Some give in to popular pressure and are elected.

Some maintain their convictions and are defeated. In the long run, keeping one’s self-respect is a large part of winning and holding public office. Sometimes participation in the political process at the State level leads to candidacy. Several men, those in the political parties as party leaders rarely become candidates. Fame and fortune go hand in hand but not necessarily in politics. Many candidates do enter politics in part at least, because of the hope of financial reward.

Then, there are a very few individuals who see politics as a chance to use public power for private gain. Often illegal and always unethical, such activity occurs more and more in Manipur but this example must not be tolerated. The campaign style needs basic decision. Will it concentrate on the candidate’s merits or the opponent’s shortcomings?

Some candidates make it a point never to mention or even refer to their opponents throughout campaign. Others usually challenge incumbent, often hit hard at something their opponent has done or failed to do.

For instance, within a town or village, residents of one area want to know how the candidate stands on building a neighborhood playground or bridge. Farmers of Manipur look carefully at the candidate’s views on price-support legislation. School teachers check to see whether the candidates think funds should be spent to increase their salaries and improve their service conditions. All of these voters pay attention to the total campaign, but the candidate who can persuade that he will accomplish an objective they especially favour stands a good chance of winning many extra votes.

An enthusiastic crowd one day adds something more to his spirits. A savage editorial attack dismays him the next. A poll shows him ahead. Workers or agents report that he is losing as in the mainland India. So it goes days after days. Never knowing for sure whether all his activities are winning votes or losing them, he presses on each day, doing everything he can do to persuade one more person to give him a vote.

He goes all day and well into the night, speaking, walking, driving long distances, looking around, listening, meeting, greeting and more talking. It is endless. Then, suddenly Election Day arrives and it is all over. His word stops for the first time in many months. His campaign, his effort to persuade the voters that he should be elected to the Parliament comes to an end.

For all the importance of campaigning, we know very little about it. We know what the candidates do. But we have hardly any idea what persuades a voter to support one candidate over another. Was it a dramatic speech or a good performance in the past? An attack on his opponent’s record? A pledge to develop the constituency? It might not have been one of these or all of these.

Or it might have been the candidate’s personality, or a favour done five or ten years ago or the urging of a friend just as the voter walks up to the polling booth. May not be for all this activity but for a hundred rupee note as far as election to Lok Sabha is concerned in the context of Manipur. Since no one knows for sure what produces a vote, it requires a brave decision. One or more terms in the past have made them known to the voters and have record to stand. They have been helpful to their constituencies in ways that will be remembered at the polls.

It is always to be remembered that an individual voter will decide whether he likes a particular candidate and vote for him regardless of party allegiance, regardless of past voting habits and regardless of anything predictable. Anyone of several reasons may prompt this decision. The voter likes the candidate’s looks; he hears a speech and is impressed; the candidate is a friend of his brother, he is fed; his neighbor persuades the day before the election or he favours some course of action which the candidate has pledged to follow.

Most voters will support the candidate who helped secure their social security and arranged for their well-being in the conflict zone. With so many candidates running in a constituency, the one who succeeds in getting his name known will usually win. Here, the strategy has to include making the voters aware of the candidate’s background, his experience, his record, his views, and his commitments of future action. A candidate must take stock of himself and decide what he wants to convey to the voters. It may be a highlight of his previous experiences, or a legislative accomplishment, or a specific proposal for the future.

The last resort being short cut for campaigning is-go directly to the village heavy-weights as it won’t be possible to meet every voter. That is the technique of every campaign as seeing is believing. There is no substitute for meeting the voters in person but it is not that easy to cover all the places where large chunk of voters concentrate either in the Manipur hills or valley. The people want to see their candidates even for a brief handshake and a hurried answer to a question.

That moment often fixes an impression of the candidate in a voter’s mind for the entire campaign. If a candidate can show up in a crowd for the last campaign, this chance more than assures his victory. Few candidates can hope to meet more than a small fraction of their voters. A candidate’s success very often depends on getting his message across to the people, especially in the Lok Sabha Poll. He must go out and meet the voters all at once. He cannot wait for them to come to him.

This is simple, and the best policy a candidate has to adopt for winning the pitched battle in the early part of next year. Hence, unlike electing MLAs, the border state of Manipur, Land of Gold needs much wiser, appealingly more mature, liberal minded, sober, highly influential and merit based Members of Parliament for both the Inner and Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituencies at this juncture.

Good luck!

Concluded...