One-rupee candidate spices up Kolhapur

One-rupee candidate spices up Kolhapur
An independent from the constituency of Hatkanangale in Kolhapur has the Marathas running for cover.
The candidate is Raju Shetti, a Digambar Jain who runs the Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathna. He’s funding his candidacy by asking for one rupee from those who attend his rallies, which are quite well-attended (see his site www.swabhimani.com). And so a box is placed before the stage into which the notes are pushed.
Shetti claims the menacing-sounding SSS, which has only one vote in the state Assembly, had a bill passed which gave sugar farmers more money for their crop. Because of him, he claims, the farmers in the area have prospered and now he needs them to pay him back.
The one-rupee donation is of course symbolic. Shetti believes, correctly, that people who make the symbolic gesture of putting cash into box will be more inclined to vote for him.
Locals give Shetti a fair chance and NCP candidate, sitting MP Nivedita Mane, is worried by this one-rupee menace.