This elections will be unprecedented in many ways. Earlier, whenever elections were announced, there used to be a mad rush for party tickets. People in fact used to buy tickets (of prominent parties) paying amounts ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 5cr to party or its leaders. This time, however, no such money transaction is being reported.
The unexpected break ups in alliances—Cong-NCP and BJP-Sena—two days ahead of the final day of filing nominations, put all prominent parties in a peculiar situation. They had tough time fielding the right candidates in all 288 seats.
"Due to the prevalent alliance politics, each party was contesting only the allotted number of seats. Hence in many places, parties had no strong network or leaders who could be called at the eleventh hour to contest. But with alliances breaking up, parties had difficulty in finding winnable candidates. So, instead of people approaching parties for tickets, political parties had to approach people. And this caused rates of tickets depreciating," said a senior Congress leader.
Till a month ago, there was huge demand for Sena-BJP tickets as people expected them to win. "The splits changed all that. Now no one is sure which party will come to power or get the maximum number of seats. This uncertainty reduced the value of tickets. In a multi-cornered fight, the person with sizeable fan-following and tacit financial support, can win. So many aspirants who were ready to pay for tickets, decided to field themselves as independents or opt for the party of their choice," said a political observer.
A Sena legislator from north Maharashtra said that 10 years ago, he had spend Rs 2 crore to get the party ticket after having switched from Congress to Sena. "Congress refused to give me a ticket in the eleventh hours. In two days, I bought the Sena ticket paying money to the person who was expected to get the ticket. I had to pay the middle-level leadership as well. Fortunately, I won. This time, however, the scenario is totally different," he said.
Santosh Patil (name changed) resident of Navi Mumbai told dna that he had been approached by Bhahujan Samaj Party. "BSP offered me a ticket even though I had no political background and was not affiliated to that party.
Someone referred me, and they called me on Wednesday and offered a ticket. They were even ready to part-fund the campaign. I didn't know what to do? I consulted friends and family, who asked me not to fall into the (political) trap," said Patil.
A middle-man who used to strike deals by getting aspirants party tickets, said: "It's the rich who approach us. After having amassed wealth, they seek fame by entering politics. But they do not have the right connections, so they approach us. It was good season to make money. We used to give 80% of the agreed amount to the party and its leadership, and keep 20%. This time, such affluent people did not approach us. They easily got tickets without having to shell out from their pockets," he said.
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