Rang De Basanti redux – 2009 Loka Sabha Election

The young and the restless jumping into the poll arena to become a part of the system they want to set right. IIT, IIM graduates giving up handsome salaries to join politics
Instead of becoming ace managers brokering multi-million deals or engineers designing the technologies of tomorrow, some IIT and IIM graduates have chosen to join one of the most hated jobs as a politician.
With hundreds of candidates having formidable criminal backgrounds in the fray for the coming parliamentary polls, these young minds have decided to take a plunge to set the rot right.
“The real satisfaction comes when you work for the betterment of your country, not for some multi-national business behemoth,” said Sudhir Anand, a merchant navy graduate and port captain at Nairobi for several years.
Anand would contest from the high-profile New Delhi constituency. Not sure about his chances against veterans like Vijay Goel and Ajay Maken. Safety and security of the people tops Anand’s agenda.
Films like Rang De Basanti and Yuva motivated Sanjay Pandey, an XLRI Jamshedpur graduate, to give his Rs 12 lakh per annum job to take up politics.
Pandey who has also worked with Vijaya Bank for over seven years would contest from Dhanbad constituency in Jharkhand.
“I just love my hometown (Dhanbad). It pains to see young talent from our state going to Bangalore and Pune for better jobs. I aim to bring my constituency at par with developing cities,” said Pandey.
The former banker feels his experiences would come handy and has also prepared a draft plan to manage his poll expenditure.
Ajit Ashwalayan Shukla, an M.Tech from IIT Mumbai, gave a Rs 4 lakh per annum job with Infosys, Pune in 2002, to pursue doctorate in Economics at IIT Mumbai. But, he soon gave