Parties likely to spend ₹24,000 Crore on campaign in 2019 against the authorised expenditure of ₹600 Crore

An informal survey conducted by the Kannada newspaper Praja Vani indicates the huge gap between what the EC allows candidates to spend and what political parties actually spend on campaign

Representative Image (Social Media)
Representative Image (Social Media)
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Churumuri

It is a truism that an Indian politician begins his election campaign with a lie--a massive, mind-blowing lie that massages the middle-class where it matters most. It comes in the form of the affidavit candidates have to file while submitting their nomination papers, of their assets and liabilities.

The lie is formalised within 90 days of election, when the Election Commission signs off on the expenses incurred by parties and candidates.

And so it is with #GeneralElections2019, which has two fresh jokes: a) political parties being kept outside the purview of the right to information (RTI), and b) the introduction of anonymous electoral bonds.

Anyway, the broad picture is that the EC imposes a ceiling on the expenditure of only candidates, not political parties. On average, depending on the size of the state, candidates are officially allowed to spend between ₹50 lakh and ₹ 70 lakh in a Lok Sabha election.

Even if you assume the upper limit of ₹ 70 lakh in all the states, filling up the 543 seats should cost ₹380 crore. Which, of course, it doesn’t. In the 2014 election, the national parties claimed they had given ₹ 55 crore to 175 candidates, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms, although 263 MPs claimed they had received in all ₹75 crore from their parties. So, a lie within a lie.

Parties likely to spend ₹24,000 Crore on campaign in 2019 against the authorised expenditure of ₹600 Crore

Again, if you assumed the upper limit of ₹75 crore, and add a like amount of ₹75 crore for the remaining 180 candidates of other parties and independents, the expenditure incurred by parties should stand in the region of ₹150 crore.

In other words, the 2014 election should have cost candidates and parties in all ₹530 crore, roughly rupees one crore per constituency, give or take. Which, of course, it didn’t. Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is quoted as saying the 2014 election cost an estimated $5 billion: approximately ₹30,000 crore. Surely, the 2019 election should be double that?

Using its network of correspondents, the Kannada newspaper Prajavani has tried to arrive at a ballpark figure for what the 2019 elections will cost candidates and parties, taking into account “gifts” for voters, campaign advertisements, food and liquor, helicopter charges, appearance fees for “star campaigners”, etc.

Prajavani is a play-safe newspaper, not given to spicing up stuff. Even so, the final figure of likely expenditure - ₹23,759 crore in all - is a worthy epitaph to “The Lie” of corruption-free politics - and to the even greater lie of #Demonetisation wiping out black money.

As always, the more “progressive” southern states are the most expensive, costing in all ₹8,510 crore ( Reproduced from Churumuri.blog)

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