Democracy comes at a cost. Let us have a look at the cost of the recent Karnataka elections. Officially, under election commission's guidelines, each candidate is allowed an expenditure of Rs.12 lakh for the election campaign. Of the Rs.12 lakh, he has to set aside Rs.4 lakh for the campaign of National- or State- level leaders, leaving him or her with Rs.8 lakh.
How does he use this Rs.8 lakh? With expenditure on each vehicle estimated at Rs.1,200 a day, a three-week use would push the candidate's expenditure on one vehicle alone to about Rs.25,000. Candidates said that they deploy around 20 vehicles, which accounts for Rs.5 lakhs.
Apart from this, he has to distribute money, liquor, pamphlets and other inducements. He also has to employ goons who would battle the hooligans from rival canditates. In all, he uses over 2,000 people, paying between Rs.1,000 and Rs.5,000 for a day of work, for almost 20 days.
So, ultimately a candidate spends on an average Rs.5 to 6 Crore. In quite a few constituencies, most notably the nine seats in the iron-ore rich Bellary district and the 28 seats in Bangalore and in other centres, it is estimated that the candidates spent atleast three times that amount. This would mean an expenditure of more than Rs.4000 crore for the 224 constituencies in the state. Incidentally, the Election commission of India's (ECI) expenditure for conducting elections was put at around Rs.70 crores.
Some cost we pay for democracy !!
Facts from the Frontline June 20, 2008 edition article 'Gaining Currency' by Ravi Sharma
1 comments:
High Cost of campaigning is at the root of corruption. In case the candidate manages to win, after spending 4,000 crore (to which their is no surety), he will ensure that he makes this investment good and also get a decent RoI (at least 20%)in the time he stays in power...and the only way to do so is by taking bribes, doling contracts to cronies etc. There was a committee on electoral reforms headed by Dr. Jayprakash Narayan of Loksatta to look into this vicios circle of campaigning cost and the corruptions it engenders downstream...Don't know what happened to it though.
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