Despite incurring the wrath of her employers for skipping work for three days, Venkata Lakshmi has no regrets. The young domestic help, who was running from pillar to post to get her voter identity card, is finally happy to have it. Now, here is the interesting part of the story. Venkata Lakshmi is not elated for she will cast her franchise for the first time, but having the voter identity card will make her ‘eligible’ for a ‘vendi kumkum bharani’ (a silver vermilion case) that a local political leader plans to distribute among the low-income group as election freebies.
Lakshmi’s mother Parvathi, also a domestic maid, plans to take a leaf from her daughter’s book—skip work and reach her village, Sirivada in Peddapuram mandal of East Godavari district, to cast her vote. “My mother may get new sarees and bangles for voting,” says a visibly cheerful Lakshmi.
Lakshmi, her mother Parvathi and others of her ilk welcome the giveaways as the cost of living is on an upward trend. Freebies are a fact of Indian elections and distribution of items like sarees, bangles and kumkum cases is seen as an attempt to strike an emotional chord with woman voters who constitute a large chunk of the vote bank. “In big cities, people get better things like TV sets, pressure cookers, electronic gadgets where grain and livestock are being distributed in rural segments. What’s the harm if we expect small things once in five years,” says Lakshmi.
Silversmiths are busy beesThe ‘kumkum bharani’ is a hot favourite of both ‘vote-buyers’ and ‘vote-sellers’. Local political leaders place bulk orders with silversmiths in Tenali, Machilipatnam, Chennai or even as far as Kolhapur. “A few of local shops here get orders but the delivery is a hush-hush affair for obvious reasons,” admits M. Sivaprasad, a silversmith from Tenali.
The size of the freebies is likely to swell this time with reports indicating that the major political parties will act liberal. “The focus has shifted from seeking votes through campaigning to directly buying votes,” said a political leader on condition of anonymity.
Poll tacticsBut why do parties attempt to buy votes when the ballot is secret and people could simply accept campaign handouts and then vote as they wish? Parvathi knows the answer. “That’s precisely why the parties take up the distribution on the night before voting,” she says, quipping that she understands that the ‘rhetoric’ about women empowerment will get a silent burial once polls are over.
