From the Lok Ayukta to the smallest neighbourhood association, everyone was urging us to cast our votes for the assembly elections. Now that the exercise is over, there remains the question that thousands of voters still do not have an answer for – vote for whom, when none of those in the fray seemed better than their rivals?  Every one of them came to power riding on promises, each has made its pile and gone. So whom should I vote for, even if I agree that voting is a sacred duty ? Vote for the “best of the worst” ? How does one judge and grade them?

Like many others, I raised this question to myself too – and decided that even if it is now too late to identify the “best” among the contenders, there is indeed something that we can – and should – do.

Every candidate made promises. Of doing this or that. Many put it in writing, in pamphlets and brochures and handbills. Others gave speeches that the media recorded as news. Collect it all, and in six months time, or a year, let’s confront the elected netas with their promises, clutching the hard evidence in our hands. This is what you promised. What have you done ? If not, why not?

If even a small number of citizens’ groups did this, we could at least ensure that election promises don’t remain mere paper carrots dangled before us at election time. It could put pressure on politicians to become accountable.

It could work, once they realise that we the people will monitor their performance with vigilance instead of going by the list of “achievements” that they print. They will know that it will be their nemesis in the next elections if their promises turn out empty and hollow. It could restore a measure of meaningful democracy.

So don’t throw away those pamphlets and handbills. Preserve them carefully as “evidence”. And hopefully, next time round, when elections are in the offing, the dilemma of who to vote for, will be a little less of a burden. Regardless of who emerges winner in this election, we could have a report card, in six months or a year’s time.