Kumaresh, his neighbours and some friends, now work for the local candidate. Their job: To walk a few yards and raise slogans.

He is just one among the thousands, who are off their routine job and have taken up election-related jobs temporarily. “ We have had the time to relax and enjoy without working and all we need to do is walk a kilometre,” says Bhupalan, a old mason at Cholurpallya, who works for a small building contractor in Magadi Road. Women labourers have also been lured by the local leaders to join their campaign trail.

Workers scarce

But this change in vocation has created a scarcity of workers among the building contractors. “Normally we pay Rs 200- Rs 300 for skilled workers and between Rs 80  to Rs 150 for unskilled labour. But due the scarcity of workers we are unable to complete the work on schedule,” says Kadhiravan, a building contractor.

Mahadesh, another contractor who lost three of his workers to the poll campaign, adds: “They are from Velur and went on leave on the pretext of visiting their home town. But later we realised they are on poll campaign. Now we have to wait till this gets over, if not we will lose them.”

Even domestic workers are lured by quick money this job offers.

“It has been difficult for us to manage the household work because most of our domestic help are busy campaigning for the local candidates who pay them about Rs 150 per day,” says Shivakumar, a resident of Phukaraju layout in the BTM Layout Assembly Constituency. 

Information centres

In addition, these workers act as the eyes and ears of the candidates and are a wealth of information with their local network. “They get us valuable information, which most of the political leaders or politically ambitious people can benefit from.

These include incidents of death or visit of a rival leader or even swinging tides,” explains a party worker.