The Uttar Pradesh election campaigning is prohibitively costly
The extravaganza of expenses in the UP assembly election is anybody’s guess. The sum is supposed to be big. The election campaigning is becoming innovative, direct-to-voter, expensive and with doubtful probity. The election cost in 2017 was Rs 5500 crore, according to Centre for Media Studies (CMS). In 2022, it may cross Rs 8000 crore in UP, some reports suggest. Being the supposed gateway to Delhi in 2024, the stakes in UP remain high and so is the spending. In West Bengal, in contrast, election expenses on publicity in 2021 were estimated at around Rs 500 crore. It is raining money for news channels, event managers, poll organizers as political parties open up their coffers to net each vote. The note for vote itself has a huge cost. The EC spent Rs 46 in 2014 up from 10 Rs 1951 per voter. With inflation and multiple phases of polls, CMS estimates that each vote cost about Rs 700 in 2019. According to Carnegie Foundation, Indian elections in 2019 cost $5 billion and the US presidential poll, $6.5 billion in 2016. But CMS says around Rs 55,000 crore, or $8 billion, were spent during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A third of it went towards campaigning and publicity. The second largest component was putting money directly in the hands of the voter. CMS estimates that roughly 25 per cent, about Rs 15,000 crore, was distributed among voters. About 10 to 12 per cent voters acknowledge receiving cash.
In UP, many parties are reportedly giving special emphasis to poor minority voters, other deprived people and wherever possible helping enlist them for various official benefits like state housing. The free food dole has cost the state Rs 2 lakh crore. Though it is not linked to cash for vote, it has the potential to sway the psyche of some voters. Almost all political parties started campaigning about three months before EC announced the dates. The expenses at meetings, rallies, marches, and road shows are heavy costs and are not part of the expenditures filed with the EC. The opposition complains that the ruling party has advantages of using official machinery, transportation and other paraphernalia to organize their poll-oriented meetings, inaugurations or launchings of programmes “to woo the voters”. Surprisingly, no party after coming to power likes to prevent it and they also indulge in similar practices. In 2017 UP assembly elections, BJP showed an expenditure of Rs 111 crore, Congress Rs 18.47 crore. Individual candidates spent Rs 28 lakh as per EC norm which in 2022 has been increased to Rs 40 lakh. This will be additional about Rs 193 crore gross spending by the four major party candidates in each of the constituencies. Smaller parties and independents would be incurring extra. There are also costs on party volunteers fanning out to remote areas for direct voter meets. The richer and more organized parties are apparently spending more through their campaign managers and small groups. Such campaigns establish dialogue and also give an assurance to the voters that they would have access to their leaders even after the polls. The live contacts become useful on the polling day to drive them to the booths. These expenses neither go into the individual candidate expenses nor official party accounts. In 2019, ADR says, BJP spent Rs 763.31 crore, Congress Rs 488.97 crore and BSP Rs 55,39 crore. The CMS says that publicity expenses comprise 35 per cent of the gross, direct voter expenses 25 per cent. After the 2022 round of elections, the latter expense will emerge as an ethical issue and pose a challenge to political probity.
(The writer is a senior journalist. The views expressed are personal.)
