The 5Ws and 1H of India’s Election Jandhan Yojana

About two weeks back, the chief minister of a prominent state in India laughed aloud in a mocking way when asked during a private meeting if candidate of mainstream parties were spending up to Rs 25 crore each this Lok Sabha election. 

“It is much, much more,” he whispered. It was subsequently revealed that the figure is easily double the number earlier quoted. Of this, at least Rs 15-18 crore is set aside to bribe the voter on the eve of polling day. 
It is important to see the Rs 50 crore in context. The official spending limit stipulated by the Election Commission for a candidate in an assembly election is Rs 28 lakh while the figure for a Lok Sabha constituency is Rs 70 lakh. Now count the extra zeros !

Following the elections up close, I list out ten ways, some of them ingenious, voters are bribed at election time. This is largely the template adopted in the south Indian states barring Kerala. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in particular are the leaders in the cash-for-vote industry, with Telangana and Karnataka snapping at their heels. 

There is no stipulated rate for a vote. It differs from a Lok Sabha to an assembly election, from constituency to constituency and from party to party depending upon its desperation and depth of its pockets. 
Assembly votes usually get bought anywhere between Rs 1500 and 4000 per vote. That was the rate at which party managers were reportedly distributing cash in the Andhra election. In the assembly seats in Tamil Nadu where byelections are being held, a vote was up for sale for Rs 2500. But the going rate is less for the Lok Sabha election, ranging between Rs 300 and 500. 

1. At election time, when there is an unscheduled power cut after dusk, be sure, you can expect guests in your locality. But no one complains and everyone revels in the sop opera instead of the soap opera on telly. 
DMK leader P Thiagarajan in a tweet on Tuesday predicted there will be rolling power cuts in Madurai tonight and he alleged that would be to facilitate ADMK’s distribution of cash. 

When I tweeted about such a possibility taking place in Tamil Nadu, BJP leader and former Karnataka Law minister Suresh Kumar replied saying “Karnataka is also anticipating the same”. On Wednesday evening, he was to tweet about areas which went without power : Indira Nagar, Manjunatha Nagar, Basaveshwaranagara and power was restored only at around 1030 am. 

2. The days leading up to the polling day are when your neighbourhood kirana grocery store proprietor turns generous. Payment is not needed, he will tell you and slyly make a note in a small diary. That is to keep an account of the purchase you have made against the money credited into your family account by the candidates. A pamphlet will be thrust into your shopping bag to let you know the political benefactor who has paid for your dal and toothpaste. 

Another popular way to do it, at least in the 2016 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu was through mobile recharge. Your mobile number will be noted down by the party cadre and depending on the price the parties put on your vote, your mobile will be topped up. Tagline : Connecting People.

3. RK Nagar assembly byelection in Chennai in 2017 to win the seat represented earlier by Jayalalithaa, was a gamechanger in terms of innovation in the cash-for-vote welfare scheme. 

The distribution of money did not take place inside the constituency. Tiny lodges around Chennai Central railway station were booked by cash-rich representatives of political parties. They were armed with electoral rolls of the constituency and word was spread in select streets of RK Nagar among the voters to reach out to a particular lodge, armed with voter ID card and Aadhaar card. The money was handed over only on submission of proof. This helped them steer clear of trouble from Election Commission’s flying squads and the police machinery. 

The BJP alleged that pressure cookers, the then symbol of Dhinakaran, were bought enmasse to distribute among voters. Many voters admitted to receiving Rs 4000 per vote, from multiple parties.

The RK Nagar bypoll was a sham. In the run-up to the election, everyone only spoke about whether he or she had received cash or not. It was like a large mob with a singular thought, a ghetto with a common mindset.

4. RK Nagar used another innovation. It did not give the money upfront. Instead Rs 20 rupee notes were given with the promise that it will be exchanged for a much higher sum of money after the election results. The numbers were noted down by the party reps who gave them. So you had several voters keeping 20 rupee note under lock and key. It was nicely exposed in this report by Uma Sudhir on NDTV.

5. Don’t think votes are bought only in slums or lower middle class localities. Many middle class residential localities negotiated a package deal for all the votes in their complex before the Telangana assembly elections. How did this work? Instead of cash, the residential welfare associations in Hyderabad demanded digging of new borewells (cost around Rs 3 lakh) and believe it or not, painting work at their building, in exchange for all the votes of the residents. 

6. The other package deal happens with caste associations in each constituency. Each of them depending on the clout, bargaining power and desperation of the candidate is given Rs 5-10 lakh each. Youth associations are also wooed with vehicles that include both four wheelers and definitely bikes and Rs 2-5 lakh each.

Villages are also encouraged to take an oath that they will vote enmasse for a party candidate. Such pledges do not come free. In Telangana, a video of voters haggling over the price with a TRS candidate went viral.

7. The religious angle. God does not have a vote but priests certainly have. So temple trusts see elections as an opportunity to wrangle hefty donations from the candidates in return for both blessings and and promise of the priest votes. Temples get up to Rs 50000 each. Luckily this election period has not coincided with big ticket Hindu festivals like Dasara, Diwali or Ganesh Chaturthi because that means making hefty donations to pandals and even sponsoring them. It is common for local thugs to side up to the candidates or his right-hand men and tell him he can deliver 100 to 200 votes for a price. 

8. Realising that transporting cash was always fraught with risk, political leaders say they used digital modes of payment to transfer amounts this election. 

9. The movie craze is another medium to exploit. In Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress leaders sponsored tickets to Yatra movie, the biopic made on YS Rajasekhara Reddy, starring Malayalam superstar Mammootty. It was basically a day out for the rural folk, their transport, food, drinks and movie tickets were taken care of and they went back happy with the experience. 

10. Now this one, I hear, is also catching up. I am told that food delivery chain boys zipping around the cities are asked to deliver packets to designated places because the belief is that they wont be stopped by the flying squads. I wonder if the politicians say, ek 2000 parcel with a chicken biryani? Or 2 idlis and four 500 rupees too with extra chutney. Now that is some food for thought.