The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Polls to SCB a different ballgame

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Wednesday, May 07, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Polls to SCB a different ballgame

Electoral rolls for Cantonment polls prepared by SCB
SCB elections held outside the aegis of ECI

HYDERABAD: Whichever way you look at it, elections to the eight civilian wards of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) are one of its kind. To begin with, they are held outside the aegis of the Election Commission of India even while incorporating some of the norms stipulated by it for electioneering.

Electoral rolls for the Cantonment polls are prepared by the SCB itself and these are separate from the rolls prepared for the EC.

The voters’ lists prepared for the EC are used exclusively for the Assembly and Parliament elections. And where else these days can you have an election where there is no limit on expenditure?

No wonder money flows and election time means a gala time for many here. If the EC has come out with strict rules on filing nominations, it was diametrically different here. Nomination papers filing time a few days ago, saw many candidates taking out huge processions with musical bands more akin to a victory procession.

Traffic halts

Whenever a prominent candidate filed his or her papers, the traffic came to a grinding halt on the busy S.P. Road. Defence officials had to put up barricades to prevent vehicles from clogging the main passageway.

Quite interestingly, contesting candidates had opted for many free symbols like cooker, comb, balloons, cupboard, etc., when recognised party symbols were available like hand, cycle or kite!

“Election fortunes will change dramatically if candidates opt for party symbols,” said a political veteran. What he meant was that polls are won or lost based on a person’s clout and popularity in the area. Official party support has a minimal role to play in deciding the winning formula!

Hence, you see candidates belonging to the same party, but contesting as independents, contesting from the same ward with both claiming to be having the respective party’s support.

Where else do you have candidates keeping a video watch on each other’s movements saving the energy of election machinery and where no official salaries are paid to the elected members? The open spaces, ever increasing toll and octroi revenue in the area are just a few attractions for candidates to gift the electors grandly.

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