Bribing citizens to vote for a particular candidate is old school. Enticing voters not to exercise their franchise is the new trend that is fast catching up in poll-bound Karnataka. The seizure of 10,000 voter ID cards from an apartment at RR Nagar here on Tuesday afternoon seems to be an indication of this “new craft”.
This is how the racket works: candidates bribe registered voters, who they believe would not vote for them for ideological reasons, in exchange for their electors photo identity cards (EPIC).
The price of EPIC cards varies from place to place. It is just Rs 100 in a Lambani tanda (cluster) in a remote assembly segment of north Karnataka but could go up to Rs 2,000 for slum dwellers in Bengaluru.
“I was approached by supporters of a BJP candidate who asked me if I wanted to get Rs 1,000 for not voting,” Arbaz Khan (name changed), a carpenter in Hebbal, said. “And I said, ‘yes’. Some of other absentee voters in my colony got a pint of whiskey along with cash,” he claimed.
