Election spending in INDIA...

One thing is clear that estimating the cost of election in a country like INDIA is not as easy as it seems. It is among the most controversial topics and is more like an informed guess-work. Available data points that the cost of winning election is not cheap... Any campaign is a joint work of party and person and is financed publicly and privately, both.The Government of INDIA on February 17th passed the proposal of Election Commission to increase election spending limit to a minimum of Rs 54 lakh for northeastern states from Rs 22 lakhs and a maximum of Rs 70 lakh from Rs 40 lakh for bigger states in Lok-Sabha elections. The commission has also planned to increase the limit of expenditure in Assembly elections to a minimum of Rs 20 lakh in northeastern states to a maximum of Rs 28 lakh. The method used by the commission to increase expenditure in assembly and parliamentary elections is a multiple of 1.75 of the previous expenditure. The increase in expenditure limit was the result of a strong voice by political-parties during an election commission meeting. The political-parties said that the previous limit was too small compared with inflation and high prices. Indian political parties are likely to spend around $ 5 billion (Rs 30, 500 Crore) in the coming elections which is only second to the expenditure incurred during the US’ presidential elections, $ 7 billion (Rs 42, 700 Crore). It is much money to give the sluggish Indian economy a boost in terms of economic-growth which is experiencing a worst slump since 1980s. According to the Center For Media Studies, the Indian election operations are expected to spend around Rs 300 billion which is three-times of the expenditure done in national polls in 2009.  Political funding in INDIA is not transparent and the sources of funding are hard to find. Spending in elections benefits a whole range of businesses from advertisers to liquor companies. Indian advertising companies are going to see a rise of $ 800 million (Rs 4, 900Crore) in the upcoming Lok-Sabha election.  

Most Indians view Indian-Politics as a corrupt ‘money-game’ and think of Western Politics as much transparent and clean but that thinking got challenged when we compare election spending of the US and INDIA. Massive sum of money is spent in the US in elections. We should not think that political pressure on businesses for funds is limited to INDIA, only. However, corruption on the global-level is not the answer for corruption in Indian politics. It is still possible to have a cleaner politics despite high election spending and the US is a good example. In the US politicians reveal who is giving money to who, money given is white money and is open to examination. But in INDIA it is just the opposite which is true, black money and no revelation. In the US people finance the candidate who is voicing their concerns about rules and taxes which seems people’s choice but in INDIA people donate money to those who help them avoid rules and taxes. In the US the sum of contribution by people is limited to $1, 000 and the state provides an equal sum to the candidate. In INDIA there is no limit for funding and there is no account of who has given the money.  According to the US’ Supreme-Court, democracy is not threatened by electoral fundings by various influence groups and lobbies. It said that fundamental right of free expression entails the right to incur any sum by a person on a campaign for a cause.    

Analysts say that election spending is more efficient as far as it reaching to the poorest is concerned. It instantly reaches to the population directly without any transmission channel which takes less time to find way in the market. This year we are going to see a substantial increase in election spending compared to 2009 when spending was 1.75 times less. Moreover, experts say that a lot of funding to the electoral parties and candidates is going in cash which makes it impossible to estimate the actual money spent in the elections. According to experts no previous elections can match the spending in elections in 2014. It is coming at a time when the economic growth in INDIA in sagging and the industry is experiencing low demand, both domestically and internationally. Many sectors of the economy form advertising to liquor are poised to see a surge in spending. The election spending this year will give a 0.2-0.3% increase in economic-growth. The actual election spending will only be a small part of the sum people are talking about. This year the actual spending will be greater than the amount people are talking. Taking a similar number of candidates in 2009 and multiplying it with the spending ceiling by each candidate, Rs 70 Lakh, in 2014 in most states, the total expenditure comes around Rs 560 Crore and the government spending on election is around 1, 000 Crore. But, according to N Bhaskara Rao, a large portion of election spending is funded by unaccounted money…