The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Gone are the good old days FLashback

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Monday, Mar 23, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Gone are the good old days FLashback

S. Harpal Singh

ADILABAD: Can today’s political campaigning be as unpretentious and devoid of the grandeur as it was about a quarter of a century ago when the likes of Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai were still around?

During those times, even leaders of their stature could share a dais of modest proportions during election campaigns.

A dilapidated brick platform at the aerodrome in Adilabad town has become a window to the past wherein politics had by and large remained unostentatious. The 8 ft x 8 ft dais was specially built in 1983 for Ms. Gandhi who was here to address a public meeting during the State Assembly elections that year.

“There were just the four of us including Indira Gandhi and Chief Minister K. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy on the platform,” recalls Adilabad MLA C. Ramchander Reddy, for whom the then Prime Minister had come to campaign. “Hum hare bhi hain, hum jeete bhi hain,” Ms. Gandhi had proclaimed from the raised platform seeking to project the Congress as a battle hardened party.

“I remember Ms. Gandhi had come on Amavasya day and people attributed my loss in the elections to this factor,” he points out. “I did not spend a single rupee when I first contested in 1978. The party took care of the expenditure incurred on Ms. Gandhi’s visit in 1983,” Mr. Reddy recalls.

At present, a candidate can incur lakhs of rupees for organising a campaign. Improvement in road connectivity to rural areas is an important factor that has led to increase in spending.

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