Elections mean big money for independents too!

Believe it or not, even independent candidates and candidates from national parties with no presence at the local level make huge amounts of money by contesting the elections. A candidate is paid between Rs40,000 to Rs1 lakh, and sometimes more — either to contest or to withdraw.

Sources in various political parties told DNA that a huge amount of money is transacted between the candidates of the smaller parties or independent candidates just to decrease the opponent's votes. Big political parties spend huge amounts of money for such candidates. 

The figures of the last corporation elections indicate that out of the total votes to all the political parties, around 13%, went to the smaller parties and independent candidates. "These 13% votes could have altered the statistics, but their existence is only to decrease the voting margins of the competitors," a source in a political party said, who didn't want to be named. 

Out of 15 political parties - the big two are BJP and Indian National Congress -- four have a national presence, while the rest are smaller parties with a few or no seats anywhere in the country. A source in one such party told DNA that recently a candidate was paid Rs40,000 to withdraw his name from the upcoming elections.
State president, Republican Party of India, Ashok Bhatti, told DNA that the bigger political parties apply everything to decrease the competition. "Even our candidates too have been approached, but they rejected the offer," he said.

A candidate of one such political party told DNA that the state president of this nationally registered party is a friend to his and he was forced to contest the election. "He had given me some money to summon youth for participating in the rallies and programmes of the party," he said. 

However, there are many other independent candidates, who of course, don't represent any party but are paid a sizeable amount to reduce the margin of the opposition candidate by targeting his or her voters.