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Behind campaign din, candidates were holding chuha meetings

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When campaigning for the assembly polls officially concluded on Monday evening, it marked the beginning of the clandestine mode of canvassing – chuha meetings – at full throttle.

Chuha meeting is a term used for small and brisk interactions with electors to ensure their support on the polling day. Voters are lured either with cash or funds for construction activities or civic works.

"A candidate is well aware of areas from his strong and weak zones. While he is confident of gaining support in his strong zone without much effort, he tries to attract voters from weak zones where his rival is likely to score over him. This election was no different," said a source.

The source added such meetings are normally held with local religious leaders or people who hold sway in a particular locality. While negotiations would take place until the Lok Sabha election held in April-May this year, candidates were not hesitant to fulfill demands made by voters promising support given the tight contests ahead.

"The bunch of votes can be of any size from 50 to 500. And given the multi-corner fights, which are likely to result in wafer thin winning margins, each vote is crucial from candidates' point of view. In view of this, candidates agreed to fulfill demands made by those promising votes. Shelling out Rs 1 lakh for 50 votes was not a big deal," the source said.

According to a functionary from a party, given the relatively smaller period the candidates had for canvassing for this poll, such meetings began right from the day candidates began their campaigning.

"There was little time left in hand to reach out to voters. So, once the day-long campaigning would stop, the small meetings would start. All the parties hold such meetings, but two regional parties who are into cut-throat competition were aggressive in areas of Dadar, Sion and Mahim belt," said the source.

He added that the money offered to garner support ranged from Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 per vote in slums. "In plush areas, Rs 10,000 per vote was not a big deal. But given the money election commission collected in its raids across the state, the direct offers to voters was avoided this time."

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