It’s easy to do a sting operation on a Congress leader

While watching the video of the Congress MP from Kozhikode in Kerala revealing details of bypassing the election commission’s restrictions on spending, I was wondering how can a political leader make such statements, even though it’s during a casual talk. Now, I’m no more surprised after talking to a district Congress chief in Karnataka.

At least, Kozhikode mP mK raghavan was talking to media persons who introduced themselves as people with business interest. The district Congress president of Tumkur in Karnataka knew me as a reporter while talking the same thing.

when I took out my camera, ramakrishna said he was not interested in talking on video. However, he was fine with taking photos. Then, he ordered the office secretary to bring coffee for me.

Initially, he was loud and confident about the victory of the Congress-JD (S) alliance in Karnataka. “In Tumkur, Gowdaji will win with a margin of more than 100,000 votes,” ramakrishna said about former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.

Then he put the reason behind that confidence. “Gowdaji belongs to the Vokkaliga community. This constituency has a majority of Vokkaliga voters. So, we can be sure about the victory.”

I told him I had visited Chikkaballapur constituency before coming to Tumkur, he was curious to know the situation there. I replied it was likely to be in favour of former chief minister and his party leader Veerappa moily, but the JD (S) was not seen anywhere, he said: “but a friend of mine said he will be losing this time. Again because of the caste equation. His opponent beche Gowda is of Vokkaliga community, but Veerappa moily is from backward class. It will be difficult for him.”

He divulged a lot more about the Congress-JD (S) alliance and the difficulties faced by his party to upkeep it. Again, he was honest in admitting that there are objections to the Janata Dal’s dynasty culture in the state.

finally, when asked about the decrease in money spending on advertisements due to the election commission restrictions, he voluntarily revealed a big secret.

“both the fronts try to buy votes by paying money to people. The bJP has more money now and they are paying more. but we don’t know whom the public will vote even after taking the money. election commission has many restrictions, but for us, we have to spend at least 15-20 crores (rs150 million-200 million) per constituency. The amount will be higher for the bJP.”

I was stunned by the naivety of the leader. There’s no wonder that more Congress leaders fell prey to sting cameras than those from any other parties. If he revealed this much to me even after knowing me as a journalist, how easy would it be for anybody who wanted to do a sting on him.