'I can't picture you surviving in Indian politics. Let me tell you the reasons:you have morals, too much integrity, and you lack an ego.'Without a job, and a marriage on the rocks, the mild-mannered JayBanerjee has no choice but to come back from the US to Delhi. A chancemeeting with a childhood friend, Govardhan Ray, aka Raja-a neta with ascandal too many-plunges him into the seamy, madcap world of Indianpolitics.
The fight for the Narayanpore seat-a nondescript district in WestBengal-begins, and along with it, the process of discovering 'the realIndia'. Jay's challenge: to provide a 'clean campaign with integrity'.Replete with colourful campaigns, media hullabaloo, cynical voters, goondas, chamchas and all the usual suspects, The Candidate is a breezy and humorous story of the great Indian election tamasha. .

Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a journalist who has extensively covered politics and elections for the print and television media in India and the United States, and has reported from the White House and Parliament House. From netas in India to senators in America, he has seen them up close and political. His work has appeared in publications including the Hindustan Times, the Pioneer, Outlook, and news channels CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18 and NewsX. Formerly based in New Delhi and New York, he currently lives with his wife in Toronto