Vote bank slip

One may fault our politicians for anything but their resourcefulness. The Karnataka Assembly polls, for example, saw the emergence of a parallel currency, devised by politicians of all hues, to beat Election Commission efforts to check the flow of money for luring voters. These were coupons, liberally distributed among voters by election managers of candidates, which enabled the recipients to get themselves gifts from earmarked shops. Colour determined the denomination of a coupon—red for a refrigerator, blue for a television set, green for a music system, yellow for a mixer-grinder and white for a cooker.