Election Mayhem

The Mumbai suburb that I live in has its local election today. I'm so glad it's going to be finally over. Because, ever since I've come, I've been hearing nothing except for blaring loudspeakers asking us to vote for various worthless candidates. Besides, people have been ringing our door-bells thousand times a day to ask us for our votes (One of the candidates used to be our local cable person and he had once argued a lot with my mum and said inappropriate things to her in the past. Needless to say, he's never going to receive any of our votes.) and they have been calling people's landlines and putting on recorded messages for publicity. May I point out that whoever designed these people's election campaign is a BIG jerk?!! Because, when I would hear the loud-speakers everyday from 8am to 8 pm and when people would disturb us in the middle of our work, I didn't know who I'd vote but I DID know who I wouldn't! The local elections have never been such a big deal before! This year, they just crossed the line!

The day I came back, there was no electricity in our house from 11am to 7 pm! But, that doesn't stop the ruling party at the moment from coming and asking for votes. You can't fix the electricity problems when you have been voted into power. How can we expect you to keep your promises this time? Of course you are going to disappear once this is all over! Being a conscientious citizen, I do want to vote. But, honestly, WHO is actually worth it? Not a single person or party!

So, anyway, I studied all the local candidates and their "promises" and the party ideologies and finally decided that I will vote XYZ person. All in vain. My name was not on the list at all! (May I also point out here that I was in England for too long for my own good? I actually stood in the "queue" to find things out and wasted so much time! It was only after my dad and my uncle came in and butted in that they looked at what we had to say!) I told them that I have already voted last year for the General elections and the address on the list was incorrect but it was still at the same centre. Uh huh, zero, zilch, nada results! But, maybe, my name might be in that other centre. Some of the names have come up in that list this time. Ok, lets check then. Umm, sorry, it's not here either. Maybe it's in that other centre there. Some of the names have come up in that list there. About 3 kilometres away from where it should actually be. How many efforts do you expect me to take for voting the lesser of the four evils? That's it. This is your loss. Very less people actually conscientiously go to vote. And this is what they get for it. Is it any wonder that we are not really developing the way we should be?!!