People always elect for a political party by expecting that they would work for them. Many of them have huge expectations from the party and want them to provide good governance. Political parties often try to lure voters during the onset of election by promising several things. Many high profile leaders organise huge rallies and boost about the work done by their government. They leave no stone unturned to take a jibe at the opposition party and also point out the failures of them.
Most of these rallies are telecast live on television channels and hence they have a huge impact on viewers. Even people visit these rallies in huge numbers. But many times political parties themselves bring their own party workers and activists to attend the rallies in order to show huge crowd turnout. A rally is often being termed as successful if large number of people attends it. The popularity of a leader is often gauged by his ability to attract crowds. But do political parties really fullfill the tall promises made by them during election rallies?
Often it has been observed that parties only approach people during election but once the polls get over and new government is formed they forget about the welfare of people. Thus a huge disconnect happens between the government and the people. Most of the decisions get delayed which results into policy paralysis thereby having an adverse impact on the nation’s economic growth. Thus even foreign investors lose confidence in the Indian government as investments are hard to come by.
The outgoing UPA government had deferred the diesel and petrol price hike during the election but it increased the diesel rates by 1 rupee after the conclusion of polls. On one hand the government says that petrol prices are deregulated and diesel prices are partially decontrolled and it doesn’t have any say in regulating fuel prices. If this is true then why oil companies are not allowed to increase fuel prices during election? Reservation is another tactic used by political parties to attract voters during the onset of election. For instance there has been a proposal to grant reservation to the Maratha community by the Congress led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra. The UPA government has included Jats in OBC list with an attempt to lure the community on election eve.
Even Food Security Bill was passed in haste with an eye on election and states were asked to fast track the distribution of foodgrains. The road widening projects were being undertaken on a priority basis to woo urban voters in Mumbai. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan inaugurated monorail while the Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road was thrown open to public without the presence of high profile politicians due to the enforcement of model code of conduct. Most of the projects were being inaugurated few months before the beginning of polls. Thus one can say that politicians are more worried about garnering power at any cost instead of working for the welfare of masses.
