The columns of the country’s newspapers are currently replete with reports presenting profiles of the vote-seekers of all hues and political parties with facts appearing in figures of wealth at their command from the time of their acquiring plum posts in the government following an earlier election to this day which are annoying if not astonishing the gullible sections of society and awakening the chelas of the leaders looking forward to add more cash and immovable property, specially as benami deals, in the days ahead. If anybody doubts the veracity of the matter portraying the politicos appearing in cold print, one has to only go by the mutually made charges by the heavy weights of the major political parties as the most corrupt of all times, carving huge amounts from public funds allocated for development of backward districts and ostensibly for the benefit of the land’s poor.

Inflation in respect of food and the rest of consumer goods, barring a few such as electronic devices, pales into nothingness compared to the humongously inflated cost estimates of all kinds of civil works in the government’s ambit. The unit of money for those estimates is invariably in crores prompting common people to think of units in thousands and lakhs as trash of cash.

A cursory look at the crisply announced sale of residential houses in the city and surroundings appearing on the last page of this daily everyday with the selling parties quoting their price in crores can put paid to the dreams of owning a dwelling in Mysuru for middle class members of society. Given the soaring expenses to meet the bare necessities of life, measly wages earned by a majority of the city’s families, unemployment bugging the youth and not to forget the proverbial lethargic outlook of the land’s people at large, one doesn’t have to elaborate on the dismal plight of the populace leaving the vote-seekers unfazed.

The electorate of Karnataka, numerically inching to reach the five crore mark, are being called upon to exercise their franchise with care to favour only the deserving contestants in the polls. If the voters don’t heed the advisory as they go to the polling booths on May 12, they are not on strong grounds to lament that the politicos and the babudom are playing with their plight.