‘Most expensive election ever, anywhere’
Lets understand the demographics of the expenditure across India
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You read it correct !
Approx .. 60000 crore(₹) or 8.4 billion($) was spent on the General Election India 2019 (based on CMS data).
The Indian General Election 2024 #AbkiBaarDobaraModiSarkar?
Since the next general Election is around the corner we will deep dive onto how the past elections went and how much you should hold in your pockets to win a election.
India is the world's largest democracy, with a population of over 1.4 billion people. Elections in India are conducted on a massive scale, with millions of people voting across the country.
In India, the term "general election" refers to the national-level elections held to elect members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament and held every five years, unless they are called earlier by the President of India in case of a political crisis or for other reasons.
During the general election, eligible voters across India cast their votes for total of 545 seats to elect representatives from their respective constituencies to the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha has a total of 545 seats, with 543 elected members and two nominated members from the Anglo-Indian community.
The political party or coalition that wins a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha forms the government and its leader becomes the Prime Minister of India.
In 2019, the general elections held in India were the world's most expensive elections ever, with an estimated cost of Rs 60,000 crore ($8.5 billion) spent by candidates and political parties. The previous record was held by the 2016 US presidential election, which cost $6.5 billion.
The 2019 Indian general election saw the participation of over 8,000 candidates and 2,293 political parties.
Before we deep dive and understand the poll expense we will take a look into the history of how the parties has evolved over the years.
You can see there how orange (the BJP) has outgrown in number of seats to the blue (the INC) and BJP winning > 50% seats in last two Elections from holding just 25% and INC dropping to just <10%
Here is a beautiful. visualisation of the same.
Now, coming back to the Expenses and to understand this, we will delve deeper into the year 2019 mostly.
ECI .. The Election Commission of India has a role to play and set the rules of the Election game.
The ECI regulates and monitors the expenditure of political parties and candidates during elections. Political parties and candidates are required to submit their expenditure statements to the ECI after the elections are over. The expenditure statements are scrutinised by the ECI, and action is taken against those found to have violated the rules.
The Expense usually happens can be broadly categorised..
The expenditure incurred during elections are mostly divided into two parts – election expenditure and non-election expenditure.
Election expenditure includes expenses incurred on campaigning, advertisements, rallies, public meetings, etc.
Non-election expenditure includes expenses incurred on party maintenance, administrative expenses, salaries, etc.
Political parties are required to maintain separate accounts for election expenditure and non-election expenditure.
The ECI has also set limits on the expenditure that political parties and candidates can incur during elections. The limits are set based on the type of election and the constituency.
Expenditure Limit (in lakhs) in 2019
Lok Sabha - 70 lakhs
Assembly - 28-35 lakhs
Expenditure Limit (in lakhs) in 2022 (updated)
Lok Sabha - 90 lakhs
Assembly - 40 lakhs
Any guess… which states needs more for winning ?
Based on reported data the total expenditure for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was approximately Rs. 6,500 crores (both LS and assembly). Uttar Pradesh had the highest expenditure at Rs. 736.91 crores, while Lakshadweep had the lowest expenditure at Rs. 0.06 crores.
There may be additional expenditure that is not reported, which makes it difficult to estimate the total expenditure on elections in India.
How do the top Political party (BJP vs INC) make this happen ?
According to a report submitted to the Election Commission of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spent over Rs 340 crore for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, and Punjab, which were held earlier this year (2022).
The Congress, on the other hand, spent over Rs 194 crore for its campaigns in these states, the report added.
And you can see similar expenditure in General Elections as well
The increase in election expenditure can be attributed to various factors, such as the growth of social media, the use of helicopters and planes for campaigning, the increase in the number of rallies and public meetings, etc. Political parties and candidates also spend money on hiring PR agencies, media consultants, and advertising agencies to promote their campaigns.
One of the significant impacts is the influence of money power in elections. Political parties and candidates with deep pockets have an advantage over those who do not have enough resources.
The use of money power to influence voters is a common practice in Indian elections. The distribution of cash, gifts, and liquor during elections is a widespread practice, especially in rural areas.
Political parties and candidates also use muscle power to intimidate voters and opposition candidates. The use of money and muscle power in elections undermines the democratic process and gives an unfair advantage to those with resources.
Ads.. Ads… Ads .. but how much do they splurge on it?
We don’t have a official data on this but, some media outlets have reported estimates of the amount spent on advertising by political parties during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
For example, according to a report by The Economic Times, the BJP spent around Rs 4,000 crore on its election campaign, which included advertising expenses across various media channels. Similarly, the Congress party reportedly spent around Rs 500 crore on its election campaign, including advertising expenses.
Where do all the money come from.. ? 💰💰💰💰
The increase in election expenditure has also led to the commercialisation of politics. Political parties and candidates are increasingly relying on corporate donations to fund their campaigns.
The dependence on corporate donations has led to the influence of corporations in the political process. Corporations expect favours in return for their donations, and political parties and candidates often indulge in crony capitalism. The nexus between politicians and corporations is a significant threat to democracy and undermines the public interest.
According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which analysed the contribution reports submitted by political parties to the Election Commission of India for the financial year 2018-19, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest amount of donations from corporate entities, followed by the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The report states that the BJP received a total of Rs 698.14 crore from corporate donors, which accounted for 94.5% of the total contributions received by the party. The INC received Rs 122.50 crore from corporate donors, which accounted for 91.34% of the total contributions received by the party. The NCP received Rs 7.737 crore from corporate donors, which accounted for 53.5% of the total contributions received by the party.
It will be interesting to see the upcoming 2024 General Election and how much the top political parties will be spending across .. till den…
well articulated