If Bihar is a poor state, how can so many candidates with a super status of being crorepati make an effort to fight assembly polls in the state? Perhaps it may be the reason why the free flow of money continues in the election time, though EC has put a statutory restriction on spending. The money power has come to be straight attached to the electoral fight due to this fact. Major political parties in the state have fielded crorepati candidates in assembly elections this time too. Of the 1,463 candidates in fray for the second phase of polls, 495 are crorepatis, including many from the RJD and the BJP.
As per the affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI), at least 46 of 56 RJD candidates in the second phase polling are crorepatis. The BJP follows RJD with 39 crorepati candidates. Of 52 candidates of Chirag Paswan-led LJP in the second phase, 38 or 73% are crorepatis. This can’t be a complete picture as several have been left in this tabulation.
Crorepatis’ entry adds adequate prominence to long-simmering anger of the desperate supporters who perceived the pushy politicians’ direct threat to others way into the State Assembly. Whatever it may be, contesting an election is not a game of have-nots these days. Gone are the days when a person based on his social work or honesty or party devotion would gather guts to contest the election. Without the glare of electioneering, there will be nothing like fighting in practicality.
It is a known fact that the moneyed entered the fray since the first elections after independence. Those who were of kingly status barring a few tried their lucky chance. As they had money, power and human resources, there was no problem. Exceptional cases still exist today but that does not establish a standard. This practice got the impetus after the abolition of the zamindari system and the privy purse. Much later the scope broadened and at present, the elections are a tough way to attain power, obviously in the name of people’s representative.
Whilst it is true that access to political areas gets easily available through money and power with the behemothic numbers crorepati, there remains a little hurdle in taking entry into the elections for them. It is not as rare as a period of tranquillity goes on in the Trump administration these days.
The idea that the field remains penetrable by the money magic rarely speaks of a fallacy. As we are all informed that the mode of communication for the moneyed class is fluttering legal tenders. The month of ‘INKTOBER‘ ends with reminding Gandhian values of simplicity and in unsophistication.