Manipur polls: Right recipe for professional voters
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: February 01, 2022 -

CONTRARY to top BJP leaders wishing as well as claiming that nomination of its candidates for the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election wouldn't trigger much dissent on the ground of understanding reached among the intending candidates, the issuance of party tickets on Sunday has seen the BJP suffering an exodus of leaders.

As had been widely reported, denial of tickets has left significant number of powerful contenders in the BJP seething with discontent with several of them promptly switching over to other parties and some others examining which party would be best suited to their taste.

Notably, the BJP made every effort to keep its flock intact and prevent the ticket seekers from defecting to the rival camp.

However, one after the other, many of its aspiring candidates, from seasoned politicians to debutants, resigning and joining different national and regional parties after months of preparation to contest under the flag and symbol of the saffron party, demonstrated that leader worshipping and discipline hold no value during election times in the state.

Hours after the BJP announced the list of candidates for the Assembly election, irate party supporters resorted to protest demonstrations and torching effigies of party's national and state leaders.

In such a situation, it is but natural for the intending candidates to exploit public sentiment and support, and lay out plan-B, which is to contest the polls at any cost.

Moreover, intending candidates shifting allegiance to voice dissent against disapproval by the party's leadership has been the norm of electoral politics in Manipur.

Considering the evolving political scenario ahead of the ensuing election, which is poised to witness multi-cornered contests in almost all the assembly constituencies, the candidates would unarguably be compelled to recheck their bank balance, for there are substantial numbers of voters who generally opt for neutrality till the last few hours of the polling process or till the candidates' representatives approach them with the right offer.

Even in constituencies which will be seeing straight contest outcome of the public mandate will depend on how generously the candidates could spend.

The fact that elections held in the state have been off-limit to citizens and political organisations sans funding capability testify that the democratic exercise is more about who, how and which party can incentivise the electors.

The election-conducting authorities might succeed in preventing procedural lapse and in holding the polls without any major incidents of violence, but it would be next to impossible to curb the chronic cash-for-vote trend in the state, especially when the contest is among the creamier section of the population.

The act of buying votes or trading one's constitutional rights deprives an equal voice for some voters and an equal chance for some candidates.

It needs no repetition that taking money for casting votes in favour of a candidate is a mean act, akin to auctioning the self-esteem of an individual.

As such, in Manipur's context, convincing the general voters who have no political inclinations/ affiliations to stop the cash-for-vote practice would be the biggest achievement of the Election Commission of India.