WHAT MONEY CAN BUY

Votes, presumably. Every passing cycle, elections are becoming expensive affairs. And candidates need pots of money to campaign and win polls, spending caps notwithstanding

- Sammya Mukhopadhyay and Ankita Mookherjee

Nirmala Sitharaman is the finance minister of the fastest-growing major economy in the world. She joined politics in 2007, became a Union minister in 2017 and only last year, Forbes magazine ranked her among the most powerful women in the world. Yet, when Sitharaman was asked why she was not contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, she said, “I do not have that kind of money.”

How much money does it take to contest an election in India? An Outlook Business analysis of the amount of money spent by candidates who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections found that an average member of Parliament (MP) spent around Rs 50 lakh on their campaigns. This was nearly 25% more than the average amount spent in 2014 and 67% more than in 2009.

The analysis is based on declarations made by candidates to the Election Commission (EC) and compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

An obvious consequence of the rising cost of elections has been a rise in more financially privileged people coming into Parliament. The 17th Lok Sabha, elected in 2019, had 474 members with assets worth Rs 1 crore or above, nearly 88% of the House.

Spiralling Costs