Election Manifestos / Opinion Polls /Cash for Votes--Deciding Factor???

1) Election Manifesto:
In the past, election manifesto had some meaning and political parties felt some amount of responsibility for their promises. But today, absolutely no such feelings… most of the current election manifestos are meaningless and often stuffed with deadly promises.
For example, flurry of schemes and freebies without any botheration about the rising fiscal deficit of Rs 5 lacs plus. None of the election manifestos talks about good governance, realistic development, political stability, social equality and economic growth. No political party has realised the value of Election Manifesto.. All of them focus only on Vote Bank.
Manifestos highlighting freebies should be considered as an act of bribing the voters. It’s strange that election commission is still keeping quiet. Can they not seek legal advice for taking action against parties with such manifestos?
2) Opinion Polls:
In our country pre poll survey, in a way, provide an opportunity for the ruling party to go for a course correction in case the survey results are unfavourable, unless and otherwise their performance is extremely bad and beyond repair. Course correction is of course nothing but introduction of extraordinary Welfare schemes as well as preparation for purchase of voters.
With voters in crores, choosing a reliable representative sample is an expensive and time consuming affair.
Also improper selection of a sample can lead to wrong conclusions.
Additionally sanctity of Opinion polls is a questionable one as corruption is all across our country’s territory and voters’ mood keep swinging for various reasons. There is also no guarantee that opinion polls are conducted in a scientific way here.
In my view, opinion polls might confuse the first time voters more than the already duped senior voters.
3) Cash for Votes:
Cash for votes is more or less an age old issue and it’s the best kept open secret in our State. Major political parties heavily bank on it as it’s capable of swinging the elections, especially the close races.
In TN, bribes are a commonly accepted fact of the election process and Non-Governmental Organisations play a major role in the distribution process.
There is nothing wrong if Election Commission admits its inability to curtail distribution of cash by the Political parties………..
The 2021 Assembly election is going to be no different from the earlier ones and Cash for Votes might be the deciding factor. more