To make a dent, if to not win, is their raison d’être
Ten days to J&Ok’s first part, there are 92 Independents contesting on 24 seats, many quietly tagged ‘pleasant with BJP’. These party-unaffiliated fighters are at all times probably the most fascinating, preventing for quite a lot of causes – as proxies and occasion rebels, as revenge nominees or simply on private fads, the legions of ‘dharti pakads’. Regardless what motivates their dive into unimaginable contests, they pack a punch, though their winnability’s whittled since LS polls 1952, when 37 of 533 Independents received. Voters despatched to Parliament this LS election seven Independents of 542 such contestants, three of whom had been shock wins. All three – two from Punjab, one from Kashmir and two of them contesting from jails in Delhi and Assam – are sturdy political manufacturers all their very own, a politics that makes institution events even queasy.
Making events and their candidates squirm, fret and sweat has been Independents’ main function. Take, for example, the present rebel in Haryana BJP – a number of threatening to contest as Independents, miffed over the occasion’s first listing. Or the 1996 case when 1,033 Independents, nearly all indignant farmers, contested on a single TN meeting seat in protest. All however three misplaced their deposit, 88 didn’t land a single vote. As a deterrent, EC hiked deposit charges to Rs 25k from the paltry Rs 500 for an LS contest, and to Rs 10k for an meeting struggle. Not that right now’s Independents balk at “entry charges”. Three of the richest 10 in J&Ok part 1 are Independents, all crorepatis, whereas the poorest two are additionally Independents, belongings Rs 5k and Rs 10k. How free are the Independents, although, shall be recognized solely on Oct 8.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion within the print version of The Instances of India.
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