Local Politicking

Maharashtra goes to polls today amidst hectic parleying, most of which I have been completely oblivious to. Most of the Mumbai bloggers have been not much vocal either. Thanks to Rediff, I could at least have a glance at the contests brewing in all corners of the state. What I love about local elections is the focus on real-time problems that you can relate to in your everyday life. Frequent power outrages, cutbacks in drinking water supply, outdates sewage systems, or the perennial problem of bad roads. There are the issues that you wouldn’t expect to be raised in national elections although they are. But promises made by Member of Parliament are useless since they can do nothing about them. They have the power to attract industries to your region or introduce reforms in form of tax breaks for entrepreneurial enterprises or get that rail link to your abandoned station, which was earlier used mostly for shooting teary farewell scenes in Bollywood potboilers. I am not kidding, my hometown Panvel held the record for hosting highest number of train station scenes until Konkan Railway and the link to Harbor line came along, courtesy some hastening-up lobbying by a PWP MP.

Govinda, a newbie politician and giant-killer made the fallacy of criticizing the state of Borivali roads while contesting national elections. Little did he know that it was the responsibility of his own party that ruled the state to maintain city roads. But people do not know where the jurisdiction of state ends and that of Centre begins. Local elections however bring politics to the people and you can actually haul up your local MLA or corporator to make amends. The fact that nothing much happens in the majority of the cases is not the issue. The choice of the candidate is much more relevant in local elections than national elections. Chances of you knowing the candidate are also higher and that greatly increases the chances of you getting at least patient ear for your woes. In that case are local or regional parties a better bet in such elections? Voting for a regional party who understands the context and culture of your place might make better sense.

Let us see how things turn out in Maharashtra.

“Local Politicking” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=336] was published Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 at 11:05 pm by Patrix, filed under Politics. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://manuscrypts.blogspot.com manuscrypts
but a regional party that has enough clout at the centre to get things done there too!!
http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix
Manuscrypts – you need to sweep the state winning all seats at a national poll for that to happen. But mostly, it just involves blackmailing tactics a la AIADMK style
http://www.labyrinths.blogspot.com obscured
you should see some of the advertising they’ve done for the elections . headlines like ‘it’s ok if someone rapes my daughter.’ and the body copy says ‘if you’re not, vote…etc etc’
all this and then they don’t even give us a holiday to go vote! (i ofcourse, having no voter id I would have slept :) but you get the point)
http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix
Obscured – Thats pretty tough advertising but heck, if it works in getting a few more voters out, why not? So are you gonna vote or not?
http://hornswoggle.blogspot.com Rash
‘Voting for a regional party who understands the context and culture of your place…’
are there any options other than the sena?
Nami
I think in local elections we need to put aside what ‘Party’ we support and vote for an individual – for what he/she stands for. Like Patrix said, it is these guys who do the trench work, not the MPs. Wouldn’t you rather have somebody who has proved himself, kept his promise, made changes and stands under the ‘Independents’ banner than a Shiv Sainik or Congressman who has done nothing but made empty promises? It has been a while since I left Mumbai and I have no idea about how the Sainiks or Congressmen behave these days but in case of no worthy ‘Independent’ candidate, its better to choose the lesser of two evils. Aha, now the question arises, which of the two is less evil? :-)
http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix
Rash – There are! For e.g. in our parts, there is this party PWP (Peasants Workers Party). They almost win everytime and have done some good work but they are just a couple of legislators in the state.
Nami – Candidates, of course get higher priority in local elections. But ultimately at least in Maharashtra, independents demand the highest horese-trading rate and with a hung assembly, their rate goes up.
http://puredrivelling.blogspot.com Prashant
Exit polls are suggesting that Cong/NCP will almost scrape through (140-150 seats)… Who here wants to have a pot that the pollsters screwed up again ;) ?? Regional parties or National parties… I just dont think that anyone really cares what happens to the people out there.. I mean is it that hard to make a road that lasts one season.. Is it that hard to provide drinkable water to everyone?? I dont think so… But until the greed of politicians, local/national watever, is satiated, we wouldnt get anywhere… So basically, we’re screwed…
http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix
Prashant – Lets not sing our doomsday songs so soon. Lets hope, like we always do, for a miraculous recovery. Let not horse-trading take place and let the opinion polls for once be right.
http://puredrivelling.blogspot.com Prashant
Sounds like a prayer to our holy lord… Amen brother!!
Passerby
OMG! Again!!
“In Mumbai, where each of the 34 Assembly seats is being fiercely contested, the response was not so good with only 38.18 per cent of the voters turning up. In the suburbs, the turnout was even lower at 37 per cent. As is the norm in Maharashtra’s capital, polling was higher in the slum areas than in the middle-class localities. This, despite the fact that the polling day was midweek and people could not combine it with the weekend to take some days off.”- The Hindu.
Won’t this ever change?
http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix
Passerby – Guess those not living in the slums don’t have a chance to complain about much now, do they?
Passerby
Was thinking yesterday…why not make voting a responsibility rather than just a right? Yazad made an argument that the right to vote is no right unless there’s also a right not to vote. In principle, that looks fine. But the consequences of a large majority of middle-class folks abstaining from voting, can be bad for the nation in toto.
In theory, don’t you think that making voting compulsory will force people to think and choose their candidates carefully, and in the process, at least eliminate the really corrupt ones? Parties will take care to give tickets to honest and clean (relatively) members, coz they can no longer depend on a blind loyal following for bringing them to power.
Patrix, are you aware of any country that has compulsory voting laws?
http://patrix.typepad.com Patrix
Passerby – I am not aware of any country that has compulsory voting laws..that would be paradoxical. A democracy forcing you to choose :) But it can be accompanied with severe social incentives over time. Force might not work out well, it never does. Now offering tax breaks if you vote might be considered as an option but I am not sure if it crosses the line of buying your vote.

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