Today is the day when Karnataka citizens get to choose their leaders for the next five years. The voter turnout has been good and many eminent personalities from Karnataka have come out to vote for their favorites. From spiritual leader and Art of living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar to the ex-Indian cricketers, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, all have come out to cast their votes. The people of Karnataka too have come out in great numbers to cast votes in favour of the candidates from Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular). Good news from the Karnataka today came with a sprinkle of bad news such as cash being distributed and clashes between JDS and Congress workers have kept coming from nooks and corners of Karnataka today. The overzealous workers and leaders of both JDS and Congress have been caught distributing cash in different areas. There also has been news of clashes between Congress workers, JDS and BJP workers. Resorting to unethical activities has been a forte of the Congress leaders and this approach seems to have seeped in to the minds of Congress ground level workers.
The first instance of alleged cash distribution came for Congress workers who were blamed by the BJP for distributing cash at various localities in Karnataka. Congress leaders in Karnataka have been notorious for distributing money, sarees and alcohol in the past elections as well. Former Karnataka Lokayukta, Santosh Hegde, too pointed this out after casting his vote. Hegde said,”Over the years, I feel that malpractices have increased. Distribution of sarees, alcohol, dhotis & cookers has come out in open. It is not a good sign in a democracy.” Former Corporator and General Secretary of JDS, T Mallesh too was caught red handed while distributing cash to people in Subhashanagar ward of the Gandhinagar constituency, yesterday.
Reportedly, there have been multiple instances of this since yesterday. JDS has lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission about money distribution in the Chamundeshwari constituency. Chamundeshwari is the place from where incumbent Congress CM Siddaramaiah is contesting elections. The complaint was filed by JDS spokesperson and MLC Ramesh Babu. Reports also came from Kolar and Malur constituency about nose-rings and cash being distributed at the two locations. Kolar rural police has arrested four people who were distributing nose-rings to women ahead of the polls. JDS workers were allegedly distributing cash in Ramnagar constituency from which HD Kumaraswamy, the leader of JDS, is contesting elections.
This trend set by the Congress on the national scale has been going on for too long. One of the main causes of corruption in India is the bribes which are dolt out to people before every election. The local parties too have joined Congress in this race to buy votes. This is dangerous and should be seriously condemned by everyone concerned. After the 10,000 voter ID cards found at the house of a Congress leader, these incidents makes one doubt the previous wins of the Congress as well. The situation needs to be controlled throughout India by curbing the corrupt practices of the political parties.