Have just returned from two weeks on the heat and dust of the campaign trail, a world away from air conditioned television debates, a divide as deep as the two worlds of India vs Bharat.

The fascinating and most challenging thing about Election 2009 for politicians and pollsters alike, is that there is no one overarching theme....it's a mish mash of a variety of issues, ranging from national leaders to the local candidate to even the pradhan who's taken a Rs 5,000 bribe before releasing funds for a pukka house.

Manifestoes do not figure here as candidates try to convince people living in huts, that this election will change their lives....for the voter in rural India, it is about why getting even a monthly widows pension of Rs 300 requires a bribe. The greatest villains here are the local pradhans, meant to be elected as the village's voice, instead they're the first to abandon them. In fact, one of the greatest resentments is that as soon as a villager is made a pradhan, his or hers first priority is to build a house, buy land and then concentrate on building up a power base to make sure he/she wins the next election. And  perhaps why the corruption in politics is now so widespread, is because it literally begins at the grassroots.

Also, for rural India, elections equal a different kind of empowerment. This is when the politicians come calling, when they are wooed with free dinners, cash handouts and every possible sop. Its a trap most voters fall into, no one thinks of the best candidate, but the one who can offer the most at that  moment...no wonder, colour TVs and free cycles are part of most regional parties' manifestoes. And eventually, it is the voters who will be victims for the next five years. Yet, the enthusiasm and energy of elections here is something we do not see in our cities..an energy that could be converted into so much good if only the right people are elected.  That perhaps should be what we focus on, that just as we the voters, have our rights, we also have a duty to make sure the best man or woman wins.   

HERO'INE' OF THE WEEK: Priyanka Gandhi, for effortlessly being India's most natural, unstarry politician, even though she confines herself to just one constituency