2019, by all counts, is going to be one of the world’s costliest elections. The seven phase 2019 polling spanning over six-week from Himalaya In North To Kanyakumari in South and Thar desert in West to Sundarbans in East, is estimated to cost the nation's exchequer a whopping more than Rs 50,000 crore ($7 billion).
This is even higher than $6.5 billion spent during 2016 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. The cost comes to roughly $8 ( Rs. 560) spent per voter in a country where 60 percent of the population lives on around $3 (roughly Rs 200: Dollar equal to 69.68 rupee as of today) a day. Since the cost of 2014 elections was estimated nearly,$5 billion, 2019 marks a 40 percent jump.
The expenditure on social media is estimated to have jumped from s. 250 crore in 2014 to more than 5000 crore in 2019. Analysts and pollsters agree, it is difficult to collect the exact cost as the money spent on electioneering is much much higher than filed with poll body.Most of the spending isn’t publicly disclosed. Despite a legal expenditure cap, candidates and parties spend unrestricted amounts. Country's big national parties have declared a combined income of over 13 billion rupees for the year ending March 2018.
Can a developing country like India afford such a high cost? Are we richer than America? We must remember that US is the World's richest country and its $21.3 trillion economy is 14 times richer than India and its per capita income of $64,767 (2018) is 33 time higher than India's per capita income of $2,036, Isn't it that the flood of money spent in elections are washing away electoral democracy itself. What about the black money used in elections? Isn't this money not "blacking" our democracy? Every time the torrent of money used in elections raises uncomfortable question but are rarely addressed/ Think over it.
This is even higher than $6.5 billion spent during 2016 U.S. presidential and congressional elections. The cost comes to roughly $8 ( Rs. 560) spent per voter in a country where 60 percent of the population lives on around $3 (roughly Rs 200: Dollar equal to 69.68 rupee as of today) a day. Since the cost of 2014 elections was estimated nearly,$5 billion, 2019 marks a 40 percent jump.
The expenditure on social media is estimated to have jumped from s. 250 crore in 2014 to more than 5000 crore in 2019. Analysts and pollsters agree, it is difficult to collect the exact cost as the money spent on electioneering is much much higher than filed with poll body.Most of the spending isn’t publicly disclosed. Despite a legal expenditure cap, candidates and parties spend unrestricted amounts. Country's big national parties have declared a combined income of over 13 billion rupees for the year ending March 2018.
Can a developing country like India afford such a high cost? Are we richer than America? We must remember that US is the World's richest country and its $21.3 trillion economy is 14 times richer than India and its per capita income of $64,767 (2018) is 33 time higher than India's per capita income of $2,036, Isn't it that the flood of money spent in elections are washing away electoral democracy itself. What about the black money used in elections? Isn't this money not "blacking" our democracy? Every time the torrent of money used in elections raises uncomfortable question but are rarely addressed/ Think over it.