This post is Pune centric, but I am sure you can apply it in some way to your respective constituencies.

Among the Lok Sabha candidates contesting from Pune is a relatively unknown name, Arun Bhatia. Some might remember him as the independent candidate who contested the 2004 elections. He picked up 60,000 + votes and was third behing the Congress (Suresh Kalmadi) and BJP candidates.

I was following his campaign ever since I heard he was contesting. I saw a few initial videos of him visiting slums in his usual jeans clothing trying to converse with the slum dwellers in bad Marathi, and I wasn’t impressed. This person was never going to convince enough people to vote for him.

Then there was some discussion on a recent blog post by Siddharth G, who incidentally has been campaigning for Arun Bhatia.

Collecting data, let me enlist the things that might not be going *for* Arun Bhatia :

  • He isn’t going to collect enough votes to make him win.
  • He is an independent and can never do as much for Pune as someone from Congress/BJP.
  • An MP hardly has any powers when it comes to the problems of Pune.
  • You have to work with the system to get work done; this guy is just going to fight with everyone.
  • He seems too idealistic to be true/to do any good.

While each of the points in themselves are thoroughly debatable and can even be proven to be untrue, I must confess that deeper analysis brought me to an even more important point. Why should I care of the above are true ? Why does a non-politician candidate have to convince me harder than someone like a Suresh Kalmadi ? What stops me from putting the same blind trust in an Arun Bhatia; something I might have been doing for long with the Congress/BJP candidates ? 

So without any debate, I could quite easily come to the conclusion that I should in fact be voting for Arun Bhatia, if I had a chance.

Let me make this clear. I am not endorsing Arun Bhatia nor am I asking you to vote for him. Whom you vote for is and should be your carefully thought decision. I am just saying that *if* I were to vote, I think I would vote for Arun Bhatia.

Now for the debate part, I cannot really think of any constructive development idea suggested or implemented in Pune in quite some time (no sensible person would say BRTS). Anyone who has seen Pune growing would know a proactive strategy is needed and not a reactive one. Even if Arun Bhatia loses, there is hardly any difference between the other candidates. Then isn’t it a nothing-to-lose situation for a voter ?

And the most important point, one of our duties as responsible citizens is to ensure that good people are injected into the system. Anyone who claims that all politicians are corrupt and hence we shouldn’t vote, is fundamentally wrong and oversimplifying facts to fuel his apathy. Digressing a bit, this is another reason I disagree with the negative voting clause (49-O) as it offers as easy way out to voters and nurtures the above attitude.

To summarize, I sincerely hope *you*, the educated people, find some time to go through the election manifestos of candidates of your constituency. Voting should be a proactive choice, not a weekly shopping exercise wherein you vote for the same party/candidate every time. In that sense, the result of an election should pretty much be pre-decided in an ideal world. It wouldn’t be as much fun, but it would be good.

Happy voting.

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