Election expenditures in India

- Bhavi Kapadia

Harshvarshan

Riddhi Jhawar

Ujjwal Sadh

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.

Year Election expenditure incurred

(Provisional) (in Rs)
1952 104500000
1957 59000000
1962 73200000
1967 107969000
1971 116087450
1977 230368000
1980 547739000
1984-85 815134000
1989 1542200000
1991-92 3591024679
1996 5793441000
1998 6662216000
1999 9476831000
2004 10160869000
2009 11143845000
2014 38703456024

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.

The 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. Also with the advent of
newer medias,

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

Sources:- General election handbook 2019

The Quint

https://factly.in/understanding-election-expenditure/