Never before in all the decades that I have reported on elections, have any civic polls carried such high stakes for all political parties as the one due on February 21. The BJP, as the ruling party, should be the overlords at these elections given their good showing at the first round of local self-government polls in November last year. But suddenly it seems to have shot itself in the foot in Nashik with videos emerging – and going viral across the nation – of local party functionaries demanding between Rs2 lakh to Rs10 lakh for party tickets. After the alliance between the BJP and the Shiv Sena was called off, Fadnavis had made transparency and clean governance his party’s chief poll plank. While the Shiv Sena might have escaped such ignominy, there has been much farce in its process of ticket distribution as well.

Source: Hindustan Times February 07, 2017 09:23 UTC