My villagers spoke of voting for either Congress or the BJP. But many didn't know that there were 18 candidates in the fray in my Janjgir-Champa SC reserved Lok Sabha constituency of Chhattisgarh. How could people be familiar with them? These candidates didn't have the moolah to go around campaigning. Take Jagjivan Ram, for instance, from Sarvani village of Kasdol tehsil. He belongs to the Dalit community and has an asset of Rs 10,500. He does not even own a house. At 37, he is merely a matriculate. He is the poorest candidate in the region.

Another man, Vrinda Chouhan (44), is illiterate and a farmer. He has a declared asset of only 40,000 rupees. An independent female candidate, Sima Mahilange (37), is only 10th pass and a homemaker, with 3 lakh and 67 thousand rupees. The 29-year-old Anil Kumar Manhar has only matriculation passed and is a labourer. His assets are 19 lakh and 69 thousand rupees. Gopal Prasad Kute has only passed the twelfth standard. The 26-year-old farmer has declared an asset of 47 lakhs and 23 thousand rupees.

The Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Rohit Dahariya is a farmer and owner of a poultry farm. He has obtained a degree of D.Litt. His declared assets, however, are one crore, 49 lakhs, 59 thousand, and 213 rupees. Though our Dalits used to vote for BSP, many are not interested in wasting their votes since it never wins here.

Usually, only the wealthy, powerful and influential party candidates win the elections in our country. But the homeless, farmers, labourers, illiterates, young and homemakers also contest the elections. How many of them win? Why do they contest if they have no hope of getting back even their deposit? The Congress alleges that the BJP fields and finances these candidates to split the Congress' votes.

The wealthiest candidate to contest the Lok Sabha election from Chhattisgarh is BJP's Brijmohan Agrawal. The state's Education Minister has a declared asset of 18 crores, 2 lakhs and 19 thousand. The eight-time MLA of Raipur is fielded to contest the Parliament seat. The second candidate in the state with the highest declared asset is Congress' sitting MP Jyotsna Mahant of Korba constituency, with declared assets of 17 crores, 96 lakhs, 36 thousand and 733 rupees. Her husband is the state's Assembly Speaker.

The primary contest in our constituency is between the Congress and the BJP. Dr Shiv Dahariya of the Congress has assets of 13 crore, 32 lakh and 74 thousand rupees. The doctor, who also owns land, has the greatest assets in the constituency. Next comes the BJP candidate Kamlesh Jangade. The homemaker had been the village sarpanch twice. She has declared assets of one crore, 54 lakhs, 62 thousand and 143 rupees. No one knows how much her contractor husband owns.

A tribal lady from the Christian-dominated Kunkuri constituency who was very active in both the church and Congress was denied a ticket because she was told, "You don't have money to fight the election." The ticket was given to a wealthy doctor, who lost the election to the BJP.

Miri, an intimate friend of a political party's candidate, confided with me, "Only those who have money-power and can fight the election are given the ticket. To win the Assembly election, at least one needs two crore rupees. If one loses, they has then to adjust what the party has given them. If they win, they will make up from the public money. And they will also make money for the next election… No decent person can fight the election."

F. M. Britto serves the marginalised in a remote Chhattisgarh village.