Whenever I meet friends from Delhi and we discuss the Delhi 2015 elections and its aftermath, I consistently hear a few statements from them which indicates that it is a part of AAP's volunteer engagement policy.
In the next election a year or so later Someone informed me that a few organisations have given a questionnaire to the candidates and their responses are available for voters to go through before voting. This time I voted not for a party but for the candidate whose answers were technically correct. i.e. a candidate who did not sound like a politician distributing freebies everywhere.
- Good candidates are not enough. The candidates personality should be such (thuggish) that people feel confident on him being able to "fight" for them.
- Old volunteers will go and new volunteers will come. No one has the energy to sustain this for a long time.
- People who left after the YY/PB episode did not go to any other party, so we did not loose much.
- When the time comes for voting, do you really have an option other than AAP?
Who is my ideal candidate?
The first time I went for voting, I did not know the candidates. While I had a bias based on the media I consumed and the people I interacted with, I was still not sure what the right choice was. As I neared the polling booth I saw the "counters" setup by representatives of various political parties. The representatives of JD-S looked outright thuggish and I eliminated them. I finally went and voted for the party whose volunteers were "people like us" middle class, soft spoken courteous guys.
In the next election a year or so later Someone informed me that a few organisations have given a questionnaire to the candidates and their responses are available for voters to go through before voting. This time I voted not for a party but for the candidate whose answers were technically correct. i.e. a candidate who did not sound like a politician distributing freebies everywhere.
When I was politically active. Members of RSS in my friend circle used to complain bitterly about the thuggish nature of the local BJP MLA. While due to ideological reasons they would continue to vote BJP, The MLA they voted for did not have their "vote".
Following the logic of voting for candidate who is technically correct, I find myself voting for candidates who have no hope of winning, and for candidates from parties I would never support!
I have voted for candidates from Hindu Mahasabha(yup Savarkar's party) and I have voted for candidates from Bahujan samaj party (Yup Mayawati's party).
I have voted for AAP's candidate and I have voted for Swaraj Abhiyan's party!
When I was attending BPAC's BCLIP program, after a month or so, some of the participants from the established political parties said "We never knew this is what a local representative is supposed to do. If we knew this before we would never aspire to be one!"
So now when I prepare to select my candidate I first check whether they know what they are supposed to do and have the conviction to do it, party ideology no longer matter if the candidate is right.
The BSP candidate had a history of going to slums and telling people about their constitutional rights and what to expect from their leaders.
So now when I prepare to select my candidate I first check whether they know what they are supposed to do and have the conviction to do it, party ideology no longer matter if the candidate is right.
The BSP candidate had a history of going to slums and telling people about their constitutional rights and what to expect from their leaders.
The Mahasabha candidate had a clear understanding of what the responsibilities of the post he aspired for were, and rejected all other questions as irrelevant. e.g. "This needs to done by panchayat member not an MLA... This needs to be done by the MP not MLA... This is in my domain and I will address it in this manner"
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