During the last Karnataka Assembly elections in 2008, I had written an article here in Bloggernews.net on each voter creating a score card for the candidates in his constituency and arriving at a score before deciding on the candidate.
In the current elections where the voters have an even higher level of confusion on chosing the right candidate, a score card based approach to selection of the candidate is even more relevant.
I am therefore drawing the attention of the readers to my earlier article available here:Â http://www.bloggernews.net/115517
 In the article I had suggested voters to use the following type of a template.
Constituency:………..  Score of each candidate on a Scale of -10 to +10
Parameter/Name of candidate |
Congress | BJP | JDS | KJP | BSR-Congress | Loksatta | Other |
Past Record as MLA/MP/Local social Worker | |||||||
What is his Criminal Record? | |||||||
How Much of ill gotten wealth he has amassed | |||||||
Loyalty to a Political Party/ Philosophy | |||||||
Can he be trusted for his promises? | |||||||
Educational Background | |||||||
Accessibility as a Public Servant if elected | |||||||
My Subjective Preference (Caste, Religion, Gender or any other) | |||||||
Total Score |
(The maximum total score above is +80. In order to add the Party preference, voters may add 20 points for their party of preference which accounts for national policies of the parties, national leadership etc. It is suggested that there can be a negative marks on this account to the extent of -10 if the voter thinks that a party is undesirable because of its national policies. )
I suggest the voters this time also to use this template adding additional parties and independent candidates as required and draw up the score of each of the candidates in the voter’s constituency before arriving at a decision.
Families and other communities can get together and discuss the values they can assign to each of the candidates in their constituency and arrive at a decision.
I invite each reader to pick a constituency (Details available at http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in after the date for withdrawals is over)  and complete the above questionnaire and mail to naavi@vsnl.com.
I shall put it up on the web at www.aifon.org.in for public information. Kindly provide your name. In case you are a resident of any constituency, you are welcome to provide your address and contact details.
The e-mail address or name would not be revealed if the sender so desires. (Please indicate in the e-mail whether it can be revealed).
Voters can use the template to create their own score sheet and chose the candidate with the lowest negative score or highest positive score.
I also invite good Samaritans in each constituency to print this scoring sheet and the instructions (If necessary this entire article) and distribute it in their constituency. In rural side a Kannada version needs to be created.
Candidates are welcome to send in their self assessment of their score sheets.
NGOs like B.PAC may also try to invite the public to use an objective methodology like the above to chose a candidate.
I hope this will be the contribution of Netizens to the conduct of a useful election this time.
Vijayashankar as Voter of Karnataka
1 user commented in " Karnataka Assembly Elections 2013..How to chose the right candidate? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe mistake of being swayed by a false notion of being correct, by voting for the BJP when the JD(S) ‘betrayed’ the BJP in 2007 by not handing over or transferring power to the BJP after the expiry of 20 months. How does the electorate of a state like Karnataka make efforts to set right the mistakes it has made such as the one mentioned above? This mistake has proved very costly because such a decision by the electorate was not weighed fully in the light of available information and knowledge.
Just how costly – was shown by the Govt in an annual lurching from crisis to crisis. Overall this has resulted in a govt which while voted in with a near majority to rule for five years creating the largest debt burden on the citizens of the state increasing it by additional Rs 70,000 crores in 5 years. This also nearly doubled the state debt to Rs.124,000 crores resulting in an increase in debt from Rs. 5,000 to 10,000/-per capita.
This was done by a BJP govt which was seen as a source of instability, corruption and lacking governance. This happened in what was a fairly progressive state where the original Indian rural decentralisation models were brought forward and implemented by political thinkers. Instead the debt financing model of the World Bank and Asian Development bank was pushed forward by the BJP. This was because the inexperienced politicians of the BJP were not in any position to say no, because they really did not know better. Can this continue? the answer is no.
the debt financing model can be brought to a halt with alternatives. These must be identified and the ruling party(ies)must be informed of how this is possible.
But this will also call a halt to the speed at which the so call world class infrastructure is being developed.
and generate a debate on development vs non-development
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