Some of the political leaders are suggesting that the voter turn out this time is likely to be less than the previous time. Since this has also an impact on the results, there is some uncertainty in the air.

The  second pre poll survey announced yesterday has predicted that int he first phase, Congress and BJP will gains seats at the expense of JDS  Congress will get around 50% of the seats. This again is based on a very small sample and we need to wait to see what the exit polls indicate on 10th. Hopefully this will be more reliable.

However if one has observed the rush during the voter identity card issue, it is not possible to accept that voters have lost interest. At least in the Bangalore area, it appears that the voters are waiting to teach a lesson to the politicians. I presume there will be surprises around.

One disappointing indication of this second poll is that Voters appear to attach a very low importance to the issue of “Corruption”. I donot know if this will undergo a change particularly after it has been reported that many candidates have assets in hundereds of crores. Some of the sitting MLAs have made huge gains during the last 4 years which only means that they have made money at the citizen’s expense.

Will voters ignre this point? Unlikely .. though the survey says so.

Voters also need to take a second look at the promises made by the political parties. From whose money are promising gifts? It is our money. They are likely to take money form the Government coffers and also incude their own commission in the deal. This would add to the cost of life and eat away the vaue of the few thousand rupees of benefits promised.

Voters would therefore do well to ignore all these promises and focus on who will “Govern” ?.. ie provide citizen services at a low cost. Many of the voters are concious of these factors and this will be contributing to the silent shift in the voting pattern from what the pollsters are now predicting.

We are confident that the Karnataka voter is intelligent and this will be reflected in the results despite the efforts of corrupt politicians to corrupt the process.