MONEY-POWER OVERSHADOWS DUMKA POLITICS

DUMKA: “If the voters accept money to vote what can be expected f rom t he elected ones,” said Jawed Ansari, 45, of Shri Ram Para locality under Dumka Lok Sabha constituency.

Jawed is a small-time businessman, providing cable services as well as drinking water to households. He does hard labour for his son’s education. But he is very disappointed when the subject of corruption is discussed.

“By nature, this (taking money for casting vote) is the lowest type of corruption and immoral too.”

In Dumka, the money game has overshadowed local politics.

A booth manager, Sebastian Kisku, claims that there was a time when the expenditure of booth was hardly ` 200 per day. But now, the amount is anything between ` 200 to ` 5,000 per day. And the leading parties’ candidates can easily afford the amount.

The leading parties in Dumka are t he Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and t he Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the nominees of which are Sibu Soren, Babulal Marandi and Sunil Soren respectively.

Sources said t hat t hese parties were ready to provide ` 5,000 to ` 10,000 to each booth committee in the constituency.

According to the Election Commission reports, there are about 1,900 booths in Dumka constituency. The candidates are organising their booth management since the notification of the election. Unemployed youths are providing their services to these political parties for extra income.

According to Dr Ajay Sinha, the head of the department of political science under SKM University, the situation changed after the involvement of the corporate houses in politics in a big manner.

“Money does not see caste, creed and religion. Money is important for everyone,” he said.

A large section of educated community is disappointed with the present trends in the elections.