A professional attitude to polls

Sun, May 11 12:05 AM

In jeans and T-shirt, and sporting a chic hairdo, 32-year-old software engineer Anuj Mishra does not look the part he is playing in the Karnataka elections. But that is the whole idea, he says: to enter the field and turn the game in favour of the so-called misfits.

Mishra is part of a large number of professionals who decided to contest the Karnataka polls this time to "rescue politics from politicians". "I could have continued drawing fat pay cheques from my MNC job but the the crooks thrive in politics only because people like us stay away from it.

Not anymore," said Mishra, who is contesting from Bangalore's up-market Jayanagar constituency, which went to the polls on Saturday. Lok Paritrana, the nascent party fielding Mishra and 10 others like him, including doctors, ex-navy men and chartered accountants was founded by a group of former students of IITs.

"We were tired of cribbing from the sidelines about the corrupt," said Tanmay Rajpurohit, founder president of the outfit. Purohit completed his Masters in the US and came back to form the party.

With the average age of candidates in the mid-thirties, the party claims it does things unconventionally. "We went to each and every house in the constituencies and instead of giving speeches, had real conversations with the people.

Which politician ever does that?" asked Sanjay Sisodia, a finance professional and member of Lok Paritrana. While Lok Paritrana believed in entering the fray, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) decided to ensure accountability in politics from the outside.

PAD is a coalition of small organisations representing civil rights activists, labourers, slum dwellers, environmentalists, students and others. "Spokespersons from leading parties debated among themselves with our members posing questions.

We told politicians that we are watching," said Dr V.S.

Sreedhara, convener of the alliance.

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