The Professionals Party of India

The Professionals Party of India (PPI)—a newly launched political party—plans to field candidates in 140 Lok Sabha seats only in the urban areas of the country. Their aim is to target the middle-class educated voters who usually refrain from taking part in the election process. Addressing his first media conference in Mumbai, PPI president R V Krishnan said: “We are not politicians, but managers, senior executives, lawyers, doctors, engineers and scientists who have come together to float this political outfit—registered as the 232nd political party of India. We do not want to field ourselves as candidates, but are in the process of seeking public opinion in various metros, A and B class cities, before selecting a candidate.’’ The process would involve conducting a public survey in cities, opinion polls through websites and the media, interviews of candidates, checking their antecedents, educational background, social work and ensuring that they do not have a single criminal record. The finalised candidates will then play the role of managers—trained for solutions to various problems in a particular constituency—and will meet only the educated middle-class voters prior to polls next year. “We are not looking at masses as we do not have the money power or goons to influence voters. We have an initial corpus of Rs 1 lakh and our funds come from the 10,000 members across the country and some business houses. The money will be used for reach-out programmes through the media, camps, conventions, e-mails and SMSes,’’ Krishnan said. Every information regarding PPI, be it funds or activities, will be transparent and flashed on the website (www.ppi.net.in). PPI spokesperson Krishnakumar Iyer said there were 250 million middle class citizens in the country, and the figure is expected to cross 300 million by 2010. “Of these, 150 million are eligible voters and only about 8 per cent of them cast votes. We are going to appeal to all of them to choose people’s candidate and ensure better governance,’’ he stated. He added that the middle class voters were largely ignored. “They are a homogeneous group, and believe in merit and hard work. I am sure they will support us in our endeavour to bring about a change.’’ He stated that PPI did not believe in charismatic leaders, but those who could deliver. “The PPI approach has been well-received by liberal-minded Indian professionals globally. They, too, are lending us their support.’’ The PPI will also begin voters’ registration camps in various cities and plans to come out with its first list of candidates from Pune soon. When pointed out that such citizens groups had not succeeded as expected during civic elections in Mumbai, Krishnan said, “A civic constituency is much smaller in comparison to that of a Lok Sabha. As the latter covers a large area, the percentage of middle class voters can have a decisive say if they come out and cast their vote.’’