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| CPM workers, including Amit Sarkar (first in second row), at a gathering in Purnea on Tuesday. Picture by Mohan Mahato |
Patna, June 14: Elections generally add to the adrenaline levels of politicians. However, an IT professional-turned-politician in Bihar appears to be an exception as his party’s decision to field him in the Purnea bypoll had forced him to think twice before taking the final plunge.
Amit Sarkar, the CPM candidate for Purnea, took four days after the party announced his candidature to make up his mind for contesting the elections on June 2.
“I don’t have the money to contest elections. Hence, I was in doldrums whether to contest the poll or not. Now that the party and my supporters in Purnea have assured me of collecting donations, I have decided to file the nomination papers,” Amit told The Telegraph today.
Sarkar seems to toe a logical line, as contesting elections has become a costly affair now. Even the Election Commission (EC) keeps revising the expenditure limits upwards from time to time. According to the EC notification issued in February this year, those contesting Lok Sabha polls can spend up to Rs 40 lakh and in case of Assembly elections of Bihar, the corresponding expenditure limit for contestants is Rs 16 lakh.
Son of veteran CPM leader late Ajit Sarkar, who represented the seat four times between 1980 and 1998 before he was murdered, Amit took the plunge in politics just before the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections and contested the seat as a CPM candidate. He secured around 23,000 votes and came third in the contest.
Before joining politics, Amit was working as an IT professional with Aegis Australia. His salary was said to be around 90,000 Australian dollars per annum. Amit, however, has no source of income now as his plans of setting up a business in Purnea, to have a permanent source of income, has not yet materialised.
“I am dependent on the financial help extended by my family members and relatives for my day-to-day living. I couldn’t have asked them to help me for the elections also. This was the reason why I was not willing to contest the polls,” he said.
According to Amit, owing to his financial problems, he has not been able to visit his wife Blaga and sons — Josh (4) and Jay (2) — after coming to India in October last year. “It is painful but I cannot blame anybody since it was my decision to join politics,” he said.
Amit cannot even afford to bring his family members to India, as his wife is the sole bread earner of the family. “Unless I have a permanent source of income I cannot ask Blaga to join me in my hardship because I have to think about my children as well,” he said. Though not happy with the reason for which this bypoll is being held, Amit is confident about winning the seat this time.
“During the last elections there was a general mood of voters to bring back Nitish Kumar to power. The BJP used this factor to its advantage but this time voters, too, know that the result of Purnea bypoll would not have any impact on the health of Nitish’s government and they would certainly take into account the merits of the candidates before casting their vote,”Amit said.