Will give whiskey, beer to poor': Maharashtra candidate's bizarre poll promise

An Independent candidate, Vanita Raut, from Chimur village in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, has made a bizarre poll promise of providing subsidised whishkey and beer to people if she is elected to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

 

 

The Akhil Bhaarateey Maanavata Party candidate Vanita Raut came up with an unconventional poll promise for her "poor voters". Vanita Raut has said that she would not only open beer bars in every village but will also provide free imported whiskey and beer to the poor from the MP fund if she is elected from the constituency.

"Jahan gaanv, waha beer baar. Yahi mere mudde hain(Where there is a village, there is a beer bar. These are my poll issues)," said Vanita Raut while speaking to India Today.

Promising imported liquor through a rationing system, Raut said that the drinker as well as the vendor would need to have a licence.

Vanita Raut had her own way of justifying her peculiar poll promise. She said, "Extremely poor people toil hard and only find solace in drinking liquor. But they cannot afford quality whiskey or beer. They get to drink only country liquor and there is no limit to the quantity they consume, so they pass out. Hence, I want them to experience imported liquor and enjoy it. I want them to enjoy and enjoy only".

 

 

Upon being countered with a question regarding the unfortunate trend of families getting ruined due to excess drinking, Vanita Raut retorted, saying that this is exactly the reason why she wants people to get a license to be able to buy liquor.

She pointed out that only after attaining adulthood, should people be given a licence to drink alcohol.

Vanita Raut added that she wanted the feeling of guilt one attaches to booze to be erased from society's psyche.

Notably, this is not the first time Vanita Raut is contesting elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, she contested from Nagpur while in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections she was fielded from Chimur Assembly seat.

Interestingly, she made the same poll promise during the 2019 elections, getting her security deposit confiscated in an action by the poll authorities. Strangely enough, she refuses to mend her ways this time around as well.