Voter Sensitisation Is The Need Of The Hour

The rising cost of politics in India is preventing the candidature of women and young candidates in elections due to various structural and procedural challenges and the oligarchization of electoral politics.

- RASHEED KIDWAI

India's 2024 general election was billed as the most expensive ever.

According to a study by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a staggering INR 1.35 lakh crore (US$16 billion) was spent by political parties and candidates in 2024 polls. Money power is making a huge adverse impact on democratic integrity and the unregulated institutional design of political parties.

These are some of the major and pathbreaking findings of a study conducted by Observer Research Foundation [ORF] Fellows, Niranjan Sahoo and Ambar Kumar Ghosh, titled "The Cost of Politics in India" for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy [WFD], United Kingdom.

Some key highlights of the study are:

Exponential Rise in Costs Associated with Routine Political Activities: While most analysts link rising costs to election campaigns, the study found that an equal, if not greater, cost is involved for political aspirants seeking to nurture their constituencies and, more importantly, for securing nominations from their parties.

An aspiring politician's routine requirements to carry out sociocultural outreach activities in their prospective constituency can start months, or even years, before an election bid. An estimated Rs 3-4 lakhs per month is the minimum expenditure that goes toward this routine mobilizational work in a Lok Sabha constituency.

Thus, by the time a candidate secures a party ticket, he/she would have spent several crores in routine political activities, and these costs are largely borne by the candidates, not the parties.

In richer southern states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, some political candidates shared that parties and/or candidates exchanged Rs 5,000-7,000 for each voter.