Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): With polling date just a few days away, the candidates have now shifted focus on luring voters by showering them with gifts - both cash and kind.
Voters are being offered grocery items, sarees, wall clocks and of course liquor and cash to vote in favour of the candidate sponsoring the gifts.
Sources said that both the main parties, BJP and Congress, are also trying to buy over the polling booth managers of the opposing party so that they remain inactive on polling day.
Reports suggest that candidates have managed to get the list of those political workers who would work at polling stations on voting day. Attractive monetary offers are being given to them.
“If political workers agree to remain silent or be less active on the deciding day, they would be given a lucrative package,” an insider said.
Interestingly, the work of luring voters is not being done by the candidate himself, but by his close supporters. In most cases, the candidates are too busy canvassing to get into such shenanigans.
Supporters of candidates are hosting ‘Bhojan Bhandara’ (mass feast) in targeted areas. In most cases, the mass feasts are being organised in places where the candidate is weak. The number of people being invited for such events varies from anywhere from 200 to 2,000.
Giving liquor to lure voters remains one of the favourites of the candidates and their supporters, as a result of which sale and consumption of liquor has increased.
Cheap-range foreign liquor is being distributed every day among electorates who live in slums or low-lying areas in urban areas, while country-made liquor is being made available to voters in the semi-urban and rural belts. Medium-range whisky is being provided to slightly better-off electorates.
According to sources, in some cases, a group of 10 electorates are being given liquor (quarters) along with Rs 500 in cash so that they can arrange ‘chakhna’ (snacks).
In a new trend, candidates and their supporters are distributing Diwali gifts in the form of grocery items, sarees and wall clocks bearing the picture of the candidates. In the initial days, some cases were registered by the police against such malpractices, but now the candidates are distributing these items secretly.
“We are concentrating only on people of lower-income group and among them we are focusing on youngsters, women and slum-dwellers,” said a worker of a political party who is involved in distributing these gifts.
But cash remains the king. Sources said that giving cash for vote will increase in the last few days before voting. A heavyweight candidate is reportedly giving offers to ‘voton ke soudagar’ (vote influencers) to ensure voting in his favour. Whispers are doing the rounds that Rs 500 to Rs 1000 is being offered per voter.
