A Strawman for getting multiple good candidates to stand for Municipal Elections and getting the best to win?

Questions Sanjay Bhargava, sanjaybhargava@yahoo.com , Cell: Delhi: 9999994086 Introduction This document is a first cut and is intended to be improved. The author has done very sketchy back of the envelope analysis to prepare this document. The hope is whoever gets elected there will be intense pressure from citizens to deliver real outcomes with a sense of urgency. As long as citizens do not accept failure as an option and have good scorecards that cannot be disputed then citizens will win as long as they are unyielding in their demand for outcomes, united and ready to help if requested. This document is divided into the following sections: 1. Understanding Municipal Elections You can win without spending a lot of money 2. Standing for the right reasons 3. A Councillor/Corporator can make a Huge Difference. 4. Using Technology - Problems and Opportunities 5. Dealing with your Competition 6. Security Issues 7. Preparing your Manifesto 8. Selling your Manifesto 9. Resource Pool For candidates Level Playing Field ( No preconceived notions) 10. So you won. Now the hard work starts

Section 1 - Understanding Municipal Elections You can win without spending a lot of money A municipal ward has around 30000-50000 voters of which 15000 to 30000 vote. We have data for all the 272 wards of Delhi. See http://sec.delhigovt.nic.in/home/Result/wardwiseresultsheet.htm The winning margin in some wards is as low as two votes while a handsome margin is around 2000 votes. Some wards are reserved for SC/ST candidates and others for women. Thus picking the ward you want to contest from is important. Winning an election without spending a lot of money is important as it removes atleast one need to recover the money invested through corruption. To win you need to do a lot of homework, listen to voters, understand your competition and win the trust of your voters. The rest of the sections will hopefully help you in this quest. Section 2- Standing for the right reasons If you are not going to make a lot of money then why would you stand for this supposedly thankless job? It is quite important that you understand why you are standing and can articulate the reasons. You could be building a political career where you grow in stature. As you grow many opportunities open up where you can get material benefits through legitimate means. For quite a few people maybe they have enough material wealth and want to do public service. On the other hand maybe you are a rag picker with prospects that are not very rosy and serving as a councillor maybe a major step up. If you have leadership potential and can work hard and smart you can make a big difference. Section 3 - A Councillor/Corporator can make a Huge Difference

As a councillor or corporator you have direct control over municipal services and indirect control over others. You can get inputs from experts and motivate residents to play their part. In short your area is small enough for you to make a dramatic impact in a short amount of time. Section 4 - Using Technology - Problems and Opportunities A bunch of volunteers are working on sophisticated to simple uses of technology to help candidates. This document could be improved and is an example of a simple use of technology. The problem in using a virtual platform is that it can be misused unless there are strong checks against misuse for which we need voter IDs to be entered and validated. People and the election commission may not be ready for that. Candidates can use excel, google docs, facebook, scribd, platforms like ning etc. to communicate their message. They can put their manifesto and speeches on CD, use nukkad nataks and so on to get their message across. We will be actively seeking best practices and through forums such as google groups communicate it to candidates who are interested. Section 5 - Dealing with your Competition Your competition may be a person like you or from a totally different background. He or she may play fair or dirty. You need to understand the competitors and devise counter strategies. One incumbent councillor extorts money from the rich (he has goondas) and acts as Robin Hood to the poor. Can you counter this strategy? If yes how? We believe that with proper knowledge, carefully crafted strategies and diligent hard work even the councillor above can be defeated. Section 6 - Security Issues You need to make sure that neither you, nor your loved ones or supporters suffer physical harm. Some corrupt people may consider this a big stakes game or it just maybe bruised egos.

You should not take security lightly. You need to make sure that simple sensible precautions are taken Section 7 - Preparing your Manifesto This needs a lot of work and needs constant revision based on listening to your voters. You need to understand the top 5 pain points and prepare time bound plans on how these will be met. This is a great opportunity to see how much you understand the job you are applying for. For instance if open defecation is a problem, how are you going to solve it. If sewers get choked because restaurants in your area do not have proper food waste disposal will you become unpopular with restaurant owners by saying that you will insist on hygiene standards being followed and bribes will not be an option. Your manifesto should have the real outcomes that you will achieve with a sense of urgency. You should also look at the top 5 areas where corruption is rampant and outline your plans for preventing corruption. If you have a great manifesto which you are committing on executing then you could be well on your way to winning. Section 8 - Selling your Manifesto A great manifesto is useless if you cannot sell it. How you sell it will differ from voter segment to voter segment. If you talk of preventing corruption and enforcing rules how will you sell this? The groundswell of opposition could be huge. You may want to sell it to a core group of believers who then sell it to more and more people Section 9 - Resource Pool For candidates Level Playing Field (No preconceived notions) For us we have no preconceived notions that political parties are bad and that civil society is good and so on. For us good candidates can come from anywhere and we hope good candidates will find the tools we provide them useful. For instance we will create a volunteer pool of people who are willing to volunteer to help candidates that they and not we

consider good. For us we are neutral so we cannot decide who is good or bad. Candidates will be free to interview volunteers and vice versa so that volunteers get matched with candidates. Section 10 - So you won. Now the hard work starts Our work will not stop with the elections. Once candidates are elected we will track the promises they made and demand results. We will ask for monthly progress reports and continue helping elected representatives deliver should they request that help.