Votes Bought in India

India is a democratic country, however as I had mentioned earlier that even the institution of democracy has been corrupted by Indian politicians.

Center of Media Studies conducted a survey just now and the results showed that votes are purchased by political parties by paying cash! Imagine that happening in a country that claims itself to be the world's largest democracy!!

The study started with a sample size of 18,000 voters in 19 states and 23,000 households belonging to the below poverty line (BPL) category in 2007. Please not that it did not cover other inducements like liquor or freebies and focussed only on the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Had they clubbed it, the results would have been worse.

According to the Survey National average of people who took cash to cast their votes was found to be 22 percent in the general category and 37 percent in BPL families. Poor felows fail to understand that the same cash is taken by the elected leaders as 'bribes' once they come back to power.

The Topmost Indian States in Cash for Vote Corruption
1. Andhra Pradesh, 94 percent of BPL category voters had accepted money to vote ( No doubt Satyam Computers was found and is registered in this state.)
2. Tamil Nadu with 78 percent (No Comments!)
3. Karnataka and Chhattisgarh with 73 percent (Karnataka is the IT face of India !)
4. Assam with 56 percent
5. Orissa with 50 percent.
Note that Prosperous states like Gujarat and Maharashtra reported 24 percent and 13 percent general category voters respectively taking money, while among the BPL households the figure is 32 percent for both states.

The lowest figure - of 13 percent - was in states ruled by Left parties like Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura and similarly for the Bahujan Samaj Party. It is quite believable since these party use muscle power (henchmen, dons) to terrorise and gather votes rather than money power. Don't think these parties are good, these parties are far worse.

Even in Delhi, 25 percent of the voters received money for their vote which is shocking.

This is the face of Democracy in India. The Largest populated democracy. This is India Shining.