Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s statement that he would never indulge in purchase of votes like other political parties even though he was capable of spending Rs 5,000 per vote has triggered uproar in political circles.
It is an open secret that in the present-day political system, no candidate can win the elections without spending money on bribing the voters.
Even for the election of a sarpanch, candidates are spending lakhs of rupees on buying votes.
Naidu, who is posing himself to be a paragon of virtues, had sought to bribe an independent MLA by offering Rs 5 crore in the MLC elections a couple of years ago.
So, there are no takers for Naidu’s claim that he would not indulge in purchase of votes.
The question is whether Naidu can win the Nandyal by-elections without resorting to purchase of votes.
Can he swear on his grandson that his party would not spend money in the bypolls?
“That is humbug. In all the elections, he purchases votes. He not only purchases the votes of the public, but also the votes of Telugu Desam party. He purchases the votes of his councillors, Zilla Parishad constituency members and MLC candidates as well,” CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna said.
“He wants to spend more than 10-20 crores in each constituency. Even in the upcoming Nandyal assembly segment, I can assert that he is going to spend crores of rupees on that. He has even said that he is ready to pay Rs 5,000 per each vote”, he added.
