As you know, I was contesting Lok Sabha 2009 election in Gandhinagar Constituency. I got 7309 votes out of 791,000 votes, about 1% of total. I was forth rank, the third candidate Mallikaben Sarabhait got 9300 votes, about 2000 votes more than I got. Here are the results.
http://ibnlive.in.com/politics/electionresults/constituency/6/06/gandhinagar.html
Now allow me to make a bold statement : 7300 votes means over 60000 to 70000 liked the laws I had proposed. Some 60000 to 70000 liked the proposals, but some 53,000 to 63,000 did not want Congress to win and so they still voted for BJP (or other way). Or they did not trust me because I was contesting for the first time and I am unknown fellow.
And given that mere 100,000 voters saw the newspaper advertisements and barely 20000 got my pamphlets, 70,000 people liking my proposal is a big success for the agenda !!
Allow me to explain why I think some 70,000 people liked my proposals.
About my background and campaign
Out of 7300 voters who voted for me, barely 300 knew me by my name or face. Why only 300? Well, consider my background :
1. I am a mere software developer and have to spend at least 20-30 hours a week earning living. Some 30-40 hours a week I spend in reading about administrative systems in India, world and discussing changes I want. So no time to socialize.
2. I do zero social work, zero patronizing.
3. I do no charity work.
4. I do not take ANY Govt grants.
5. I have zero caste/ethnic base in Ahmedabad. I am Jain, and how many Jains possibily voted for me for my being a Jain? Well, not even 500 Jains in Ahmedabad know that I am a Jain !! Because I havent visited any Derasar in past 25 years !!
6. I have never been a corporator etc that would give me some local base.
7. My political career in field is 6-7 years old, but does NOT go beyond distributing pamphlets and giving talks on laws I am proposing.
8. I did not raise any local issue like roads or streets or traffic or water supply. Parliament is for National issues only.
9. I had made zero emotional appeal in my talks, pamphlets and newspaper ads
10. I made NO pseudo-talks like secularism, environmentalism, women issues, dalit issues, minority issues, student issues etc. These pseudo-talks does attract urbane liberal DCH youth. And raising "women issues" does attract some women voters. But I left all that pseudo-giri to Mallikaben. I did not want any votes from shrills.
11. My advertisements talks only of real issues like solutions to reduce poverty, improve Military, reduce corruption etc. No BJP bashing, no Congress bashing, no LKA bashing, no Modi bashing, no SG/RG bashing, no MMS bashing.
12. My advertisements were 100% rational-legal and looked more like a good newspaper column text rather than some emotive ad.
13. I had NO slogan --- I hate slogans.
14. All my neighbors fall in different constituency - Ahmedabad West. So no neighbor's votes.
I believe that 100% voters are rational and so no emotive appeals and entertainment is needed and it will only be counter-productive. The voters take wrong choice ONLY because of lack of information and lack of good options. So a candidate who wishes well for nation should confine to creating good options and informing voters about good option. So I wanted a dry campaign with no entertainment elements. No road shows. No mass meetings. No rikshaw or cars with mikes making noise all over. Only advertisements, pamphlets and talks. The pamphlets were all black and white, so were all advertisements. With no glossy emotive pcitures.
I did ALL administrative work myself. I myself went to Gandhinagar to collect form. I filled the entire form myself -- hired no lawyer. I spent over 30-40 hours in just filling forms. I did not appoint even an election agent. And candidate needs to submit expense details 4 times during election. All 4 times, I went myself in person autorickshaw from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar - I did not ask my volunteer to go to do this brain dead work. All pamphlets and advertisements were drafted by me and me only. I had no polling agent. I had no counting agent. India needs to get of all this army of peons.
And when I started, I had only 50 activists all unpaid and part-time . I dont believed in paid activism. (Now I have 200, all unpaid and part-time)
My advertisement expenses of 5 advertisements I gave before election and 4 advertisements I gave during election period was about Rs 800,000. Pamphlets cost me Rs 90,000 and rest was mere Rs 50000. Everything was post-tax hard earned white money. I did NOT take a penny of donation, I believe in "activists' contribution" only and I hate donations=bheekh.
Mine was a 100% no-drama "confine to laws you propose" campaign.
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About Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad area : independents nightmare
Before I filed form, I had seen EC website and got details of these two area's voting behavior. Since 1992, no independent or small party got over 10000 votes. Not even one. And since 1992 till date, hardly 6 independents got over 5000 votes. The reason is very logical - Congress and BJP invoke deep fear in OR a lone hope against that fear. So no matter how good independent is, he seldom gets past 5000 votes. Why?
1. over 99% Congress haters think : if I vote for X, he is bound to loose, and Congress may win
2. over 99% BJP haters think : if I vote for X, he is bound to loose, and BJP may win
So while over 90% voters in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar hate both BJP/Congress and have respect for none, they still vote for them lest the guy they hate more would win. This is called as Two Party Syndrome, where people vote "most powerful and second worst guy". This is a desperate attempt to minimize losses and nothing more. [Aside : The problem is 2000 years old, and solution is also 2000 years old -- a voting system where a voter can cast 5 preferences. Too complicated? Well, Ireland, Australia have been using this for over 50-70 years !! So how complex can it be? But till that change comes, 2 party symdrome is here to stay as the problem is real as long as voters are forced to confine to single choice only.]
So when can an independent get some votes in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar?
1. Personal contacts
2. Local issues
3. Caste base - a small sub-caste feels injustice and so rallies for their independent candidate
4. Neighbors OR
5. When some voters like independents views to such an extent, that voter says : hell with both, I would vote for this guy.
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So who voted for me
As I explained, that reasons 1-4 do only apply on me. I have no caste base, I do no charity work, I have no widespread contacts etc. So only reason why someone would vote for me
So out of 7300, only 300 voted for me because they knew me well. But why did rest 7000 voted for me? The only sensible explanation can be : because they liked the laws I proposed. IOW, 7000 guys had intense attachment for this agenda. But if 7000 guys had such intense attachment that two pary syndrome broke, then how many people liked the proposals? I would guess at least 8 to 10 times more - about 70000. And since my advertisements reached only 100,000 people, this was a good "conversions" ratio. So IMO," Right To Recall" laws have made a deep impact in the minds of voters of Ahmedabad.
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Now you want Right to Recall laws in India?
If yes, pls follow this blog mehtarahulc.blogspot.com and join this orkut community http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=21780619
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