Click to play videoMumbai: Fifty-four-year-old Pramila Pawar was the average middle-aged housewife till she suddenly decided to fight the municipal elections from the 93rd ward in Mumbai.
She says that the reason she wanted to take part in the polls was because she wanted to "make my area reach the skies like an airplane".
Her idealism has taken flight with her election symbol - the airplane. But how can a simple lower middle class housewife afford the expenses of funding an expensive campaign.
The banners, crackers and running a full time election office all cost real money.
There is a simple explanation. If the local Congress workers are to be believed, Pramila's candidature was backed by the BJP contestant.
Congress worker, Suresh Varwekar was caught by CNN-IBN on hidden camera saying, "This woman has been propped up by the BJP candidate Ashish Shelar, so that he cuts into our votes."
And this could well be true, for Shelar sure sounds confident when he says, "The truth is that there is no independent candidate who will cut into the BJP-Sena vote bank here. They are all cutting into the Congress vote bank."
However, when asked about the same thing in private, he denies the allegation. So what is the truth?
CNN-IBN spoke to Pramila's son and her campaigning manager, Rajesh Pawar, and asked him the going rate of buying independent candidates.
He says, "Nobody does anything without money. The rate is between Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 lakh."
Pramila's not the only one. Another independent candidate, Vijay Gadge, withdrew his nomination at the last moment despite the fact that he got the third highest votes in the ward withdrew.
"I withdrew at the last moment. There was exactly a minute left before 4 PM and I gave in the papers," says he.
The reason many allege was that he had been paid off by the Congress.
Says another independent candidate, Avinash Khot, "Why would a candidate stand for polls and then withdraw at the last moment? He has been paid between Rs 3 to Rs 5 lakh."
When asked why he was paid so much for such a small ward, the Khot said that it was because he was at the third position."
Predictably, this is an allegation that both the Congress and Gadge deny.
Says Congress candidate, Prakash Bobadi, "The opposition will say anything about you, so before the press reports it, they should confirm it."
The problem is that there is no proof for most of these deals. Who has been bought and who has been propped up is very hard to tell. The only thing one is certain of is that a lot of money has changed hands in these elections.
If that is the kind of investment each candidate has been making, then what is the return he expects on the investment? And where will he get the money from?
These are questions the answers to which could possibly hold the key to the dismal state of infrastructure in the city.
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