Selecting Candidates

Deciding   is   Difficult

How do you go about deciding who shall be your candidate for the forthcoming elections  ?

For most political parties , only one thing matters most, viz :,

"  Is he ( or she ), likely to win  ? What is the probability of winning ? "

It is this same simple " rule " that people all around the World use , whether betting on a ,

>   horse  ( in a derby  )

>   batsman  (  in a cricket match  )

>   car driver  (  in Grand Prix  )

Or ,

>   politician  (  in an election  )

Nothing else matters . Ask any " Bookie "  !

But AAP  ( Aam  Aadmi  Party  ) added some more factors to be considered while selecting its candidates for 2014 elections , viz : ,

>  He must be honest and non-corruptible

>  He must not be greedy for power

>  He shall be a firm believer in AAP's " Moral Philosophy "

>  He must not have any criminal background

Except for the last point , others are very difficult to verify

But , to me , it seems AAP forgot to mention ( intentionally  ?  ) , the following , very important points :

>  He must have enough accumulated wealth or known / public , " Sources

    of  legitimate Income " , that he does not need to worry about how to

    survive on a MP / MLA's salary , while devoting full time to his duties,

    (  while remaining " Non-corrupt " )

    Not being the " only earning member " of his family is an advantage  !

>  He must be well - known amongst the local voters as a " Social Activist ",

    so that , he has a high " Recall Value " , when the voters look at his name

    on the EVM

Arvind - and his colleagues - need to explain these " Selection Criteria " to the voters , again and again , so that there is no opposition / dissent of the kind we are witnessing , upon declaration of the first list of 20 ( Celebrity ? ) candidates

Still better would be :

>   Design a Online form , listing ALL the Selection Criteria

>   Assign " Weightages " to each criteria

>   Assign a " Rating Scale " of 1 to 5 ( 1=worst / 5= Best )

>   Get 50 Core Committee  Members of AAP , to rate each " Nominee "

     candidate , for each Selection Criteria , online ( without getting

     influenced by anyone )

>   Let the software compute the " Overall Scores " for each candidate

>   Let the software compute the " Percentile Scores " for each candidate

>   Let the software declare the " Winner "  !

If 1.6 million citizens of Estonia can " elect " all the members of their Parliament  ONLINE , then surely , AAP geeks should face no problem in this utterly transparent method !

Let them read , " Wisdom of the Crowd "  !

As with everything else , AAP must blaze a new path in its selection process

*   hemen  parekh  (  21  Feb  2014   )

Andheri _ Mumbai

(M) o-98,67,55,08,08