Westerners call the Indian General Elections "a carnival". The unsexed version of Rio, is this what they are thinking? Truth is, there are so few good candidates and so many hurdles for good candidates to spread the word that most elections record 50% voting averages.

Came across an excellent blog post about why, for the average inquisitive Indian voter, voting is difficult. The blogger who is being excerpted here is from South India:

...these local parties (the DMK and the AIADMK) tie up with the national parties and thereby lend them support in coming to power. So if I want the Congress to come to power, I have to know which local state party is allied with them and vote for that one. Once the dust has settled, this alliance will choose someone to become the Prime Minister.

Therefore, now that all this is clear, it is time to vote. Or is it?

Choosing a candidate - What I need to know first

So now, I need to select which person should represent my constituency. To do this, I need to know the following:

1. To which constituency do I belong?
2. Who are the candidates for my constituency?
3. What are the qualities of each candidate? Is he or she someone I would vote for?
4. Which party do they belong to?
5. If I have a particular party in mind that I want to come to power in the center, which state party has a tie up with that particular group?
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Where do I find the information about the candidate?

The writer forgot to ask this important question at end:

1. What if none of the candidates are worthy of my vote?

2. Should there be Negative voting?

3. Should we have the power to reject all candidates on the list until the political parties are forced to listen to our demand for better candidates which they would arrive at after consultation with us through chats, blogs, votes etc.?