National News

Defeated in the election, man asks voters to give his money back

Sentinel Digital Desk

Guwahati: Indian politics is no less than a wonder as there is no dearth of amazing stories of its politicians and one such instance has come into notice. An election candidate, who lost in the elections, is seen to have gone door to door asking his money back that he had paid people for voting him. One such video of the man going to people and asking his money back that he gave them for voting has gone viral.

As seen in the video, the person is Uppu Prabhakar, 55, whose wife is Hymavathi Prabhakar. The man had contested and lost as a ward nominee in the gram panchayat elections at Jajireddygudem village, Telangana. But he lost in the elections and now, he is asking the cash back that he had paid as bribes to the voters for making him win in the elections.

Once the video goes viral, it started attracting various positive and negative comments. If someone has commented the man as “Worse than beggars!” then someone else has said, “Good initiative, people will stop taking money from candidates.” By profession, Mr. Prabhakar is a liquor vendor and farmer and is out of reach since the video came out.

As stated by the villagers, the person Mr. Prabhakar has even told them that they do not deserve to have the money now as they did not vote for him. As per the reports, Ms. Prabhakar secured only 24 of the 269 votes in the ward.

But shortly after the video got leaked and the person got suspended from the Congress party, his wife became a ward nominee as an independent candidate on January 17. This time as well, he opted for a unique way of campaigning for his wife. This time, he carried plastic jugs filled with liquor. A resident of the village said, “He would walk in with a quarter bottle of liquor kept in a plastic jug and ask for votes. He distributed jugs, as the jug was his wife’s election symbol.”

As per the village elders, the ‘cash per voter (CPV) tradition’ is widely prevalent and is practice for giving every voter a quarter bottle of liquor every day until polling day. The cash provided in such systems ranges from Rs.800 to Rs.1,500. Mr. Prabhakar is alleged to have provided Rs.800 to every voter along with also giving liquor and the plastic jug.