I WILL CERTAINLY NOT VOTE FOR A CANDIDATE JUST BECAUSE HE IS OF MY CASTE OR COMMUNITY.

I shall vote for the candidate who has a clean image and has been honest.

I shall vote for one who has been hard working and proficient in the profession he was engaged in before joining politics. If he was a teacher how good he was as teacher. If he was an advocate how successful he was as advocate based on the opinion of those who were his clients?

I shall vote for the candidate who has educated his girl child equally well and treated her equally with his male children. I shall certainly not vote for someone who considers his male child as the only successor of the family even if he is inferior to the female child.

I shall certainly not vote for someone who has produced a large number of children.

I shall certainly vote for a candidate who has outstanding educational and successful professional background along with other criteria.

I shall also vote for someone whose story is one of ‘from rag to riches’, who has gone through the misery of life and reached the top with his hard, and honest work and not through foul means.

I shall not vote for someone who has been only politician without any skill in any profession good enough to earn for earning for the living of the family, if he is out of politics.

I shall prefer someone who has been compassionate, was engaged in some social work and got the appreciation of the community.

I shall certainly give better weightage for a candidate who has worked for providing education and healthcare for the people in his community.

I shall vote for one who has been an entrepreneur who has provided employment and engagement to the people and has been paying justified remuneration. He is one who can create jobs for unemployed youth.

I shall vote for someone who can live, spend time with the people in his constituency and who travels by self driven car instead of hankering for an urban abode for the night and a helicopter to reach a village. I will certainly love to have a brave person as my leader who does not require special police protection.

I wish this list could have been comprehensive and illustrative enough to make it easy even for a lay man or an ignorant villager to help him in deciding the right candidate. Can someone help the people by providing them a means to decide the right candidate? Can there be an effective way to convince people against voting based on the caste and or community?

Why should a judgment decide the party whom someone votes? Why should someone vote a known hard criminal or corrupt just because he comes from his caste?

And finally why should the people from so called forward (upper) castes that are supposed to be more enlightened and educated, vote for some party as some one of their caste with clear vested interest has joined it and recommends that?

The present election in Bihar will also judge the people and the community of Bihar at large if they prefer development over backwardness and if they deserve a better governance and prosperity at least equal to the other developed states of the country.

I wish the media to help the people to make a right judgment by letting the people know the candidates without any bias. That will be the great service to the democracy.

The views expressed by the author are personal.

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