Election Expenditures In India

Election expenditures in India

- Bhavi Kapadia

What is covered under Election expenditure?
As per the guidelines, the following items are treated as expenditure incurred for the actual conduct of elections.

·Setting up of the polling stations and making necessary arrangements at polling booths & counting centres

·Payment of TA/DA etc., to polling personnel and counting staff
·Making transport arrangements for carrying polling and counting staff to the polling and counting centres and for the movement of election material and ballot boxes

·Making temporary telephone facilities and electrical fittings, etc. to the polling booths and counting centres

·Purchase of election material like indelible ink, ammonia paper, etc., which are exclusively utilized for that particular election

·Miscellaneous expenditure for the purpose of smooth conduct of polling and counting
·Expenditure is also incurred on other items which are not treated as ‘expenditure for the actual conduct of elections’. Hence, the expenditure on these items has to be borne equally by the state & central governments. These include things like expenditure on regular election establishment and preparation & revision of electoral rolls.

Election expenditure data and it’s interpretation.

As we can see from the above given data that the election expenditure of India has been constantly increasing since 1952, except for in the year 1957 which it is less than the year of previous election. We may interpret that before 1957, the only election conducted of independent India was in 1952. Hence, 1952 was the first time when an election was conducted after independence in India so a whole new election system must have been designed at that time, which is why the expenditure in 1952 was more than 1957.

After 1957, the election expenditure has been constantly increasing without any exception. We may take the reason behind this to be constantly increasing number of voters and constantly increasing number of contestants (with exceptions in the year 1998 and 1999). As with the increasing number of voters, the number of polling and counting station as well as officers at both the locations and election material like indelible ink, ammonia paper, etc., will also be increased. Inflation and change in Indian economy can also be taken as one of the reasons behind the constant increase.

Another change which has taken place in the election system is the evolution of voting system. In the election of 1951-52 and 1957, there was balloting system where a common printed paper was dropped in the box of candidate of choosing. In 1962, came the marking system where a mark was kept beside the symbol of candidate of choosing and dropping the paper in a common box. In 2004, the EVM system was used all over India for the first time and in 2013, VVPAT were used with EVM. With the constant change in this system, the expenditure has also increased.

It is being said that the Indian election of 2019 is the world’s most expensive election with the expense of around 50,000 crore as reported by The Quint.

Sources:- General election handbook 2019
The Quint
https://factly.in/understanding-election-expenditure/