Karnataka: Cash-for-vote menace big challenge for election officials

BENGALURU: Many candidates evidently feel every vote has a price tag depending on the constituency, community and ferocity of the electoral battle: With less than a month to go for the Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka, the cash-for-vote menace is going under the radar even as it is getting bigger.
According to data provided by the chief electoral officer, poll-related seizures in cash, liquor, jewellery and other items have crossed Rs 18 crore — an alarming figure given that the election process is just picking up and total seizures in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls amounted to Rs 28 crore.
With the announcement of the poll schedule on March 10, police started conducting random inspections of vehicles at checkpoints and offices across the state with the help of the income tax department and excise officials.
Though the Election Commission has fixed an upper limit of Rs 70 lakh on the expenditure of a candidate in the parliamentary elections, reports indicate that some candidates are prepared to spend in excess of Rs 10 crore, particularly in constituencies where the contest is close. The price per vote reportedly ranged between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 in the 2018 assembly election.
Sources said Bengaluru North, Bengaluru Central, Mandya, Hassan, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Ballari, Davanagere, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Raichur, Bengaluru Rural, Koppal, Haveri and Chikkodi are constituencies where candidates will have to spend Rs 10 crore or more.
Sources said targeted vote buying — candidates distributing money and liquor directly to voters on the eve of polling day — is no longer prevalent. Now it is all “mass vote buying” in which contestants target clusters of voters in social and religious organisations, Dalit colonies, slums, minority groups, labourers and self-help groups, the sources said. Most of the money is distributed well ahead of filing of nominations.
“We have to give organisations or leaders of communities Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh for their support,” a Congress MP said.
A BJP MP said he spent about Rs 2 crore to corner the support of four crucial organisations in his constituency. He distributed the money to voters in the presence of leaders of all castes who pledged their votes in front of a local temple. Contestants spend smaller amounts of money on individual voters only a couple of days before polling.
An election commission official said candidates are innovating by distributing money to voters via digital wallets. “In last year’s bypoll in Ballari, voters were each given a Rs 50 note with a particular marker. After voting, they could exchange the Rs 50 note for Rs 2,000,” the official said.