NRI techie joins poll battle to fight for values

TECH-TONICS OF POLITICS: Reddy believes to see the change, one has to be the change.

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Bangalore: For Ravi Krishna Reddy, an independent candidate from Jayanagar in Bangalore, it's quite a departure from his high paying software job in the US.

Over the last few months, Reddy has been busy putting out his election manifesto for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls. [Read the Karnataka poll schedule]

"Representatives are supposed to spend only Rs 10 lakh for the elections but in some places, they are spending between 10 times and 100 times more. So this is not people choosing their representative but the representative buying his representation,” he says.

Reddy plans to run his campaign within the Election Commission's limit of Rs 10 lakh.

Through public participation, he has already raised over Rs 3 lakh and while more support is flowing in, Reddy knows the limits of his campaign

“I think this is going to be the sowing of the seed so I am not expecting any immediate miracle or and immediate change. It is a long process but somebody somewhere it has to start,” he says.

To draw more public support, Reddy is also going on a three-day hunger strike with the backing of some of Karnataka's prominent and progressive writers.

He says the election contest is all about morals and ethics.

If you want to see the change, then you got to be the change - that's what Reddy has set out to do. He believes if more people step forward, governance might finally be about we, the people.