Vote Buying and Social Imagination: A Case Study of RK Nagar By Election , Tamilnadu

Vote buying has become a biggest problem in conducting free and fair elections in India. The threats they impose undermine the very nature of Indian democracy. What is the reason behind such immoral incidents in politics? The paper tries to understand these events through a case study of recently concluded RK Nagar by-poll, which saw the rise of TTV Dinakaran, the nephew of Sasikala Natarajan as a potent force in Tamilnadu politics. The paper tries to analyse the discourses of the people regarding ‘money’ and ‘politics’ dictated by their socio- political context  and tries to understand the meaning they attach to ‘money’ and ‘politics’ and through that analysis, the paper tries  to locate these corrupt practises in the lack of ‘Social imagination’ by its people.

Keywords:
Social Imagination, Political culture, vote buying, RK Nagar, cash for votes, Charismatic authority.