Lok Sabha Elections 2024 may be most expensive in decades, crores of rupees invested | India News

The Lok Sabha Election in India are being held in 7 phases. While 2 phases have already been conducted, another 5 are still to be held. The results of the elections will be announced on June 4. According to a study by the Center for Media Studies, this year’s elections will be the most expensive. Expenses are expected to reach Rs 1.35 crore. This is much more than Rs 60,000 crore spent in 2019.

Leaders now focus on public meetings more than door-to-door campaigns said an expert (Representative image. Credit: PTI)

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 is currently being held in India. Two phases of voting are already completed, another 5 phases are still to go. Amidst all this a report revealed that this year’s election is among the most expensive ever not only in India, but around the world. Election 2024 is set to break all previous records as far as expenses are concerned, it said.

The claim about this election being the most expensive was made by N Bhaskar Rao, president of Center for Media Studies (CMS). CMS is a non-profit organisation which has been monitoring election related expenses for the past 35 years. According to him, the expected expenditure in this election is expected to reach Rs 1.35 lakh crore. This is more than double the Rs 60,000 crore which was spent in the last General Elections held in 2019.

Expenditure on public meetings

According to Bhaskar Rao this expenditure includes all direct and indirect expenses related to elections, including political parties and organisations, candidates, government and the Election Commission. He claimed that initially he had estimated an expenditure of Rs 1.2 lakh crore, but now it has been revised to Rs 1.35 lakh crore. The data includes figures post disclosure of electoral bonds and all election related expenses.

According to the expert, nowadays leaders do not do much door to door campaigning. They now focus more on public meetings and spend more money on organising them. Since 2014, the election expenditure has risen sharply. The reason for this, he said, is corporate. Also nowadays parties spend a lot of money on workers. Local leaders are not given tickets these days and leaders from outside are sent to constituencies, he added. All this adds up to the expenditure during election time.

Estimated expenditure of Rs 1,400 per voter

According to the CMS President expenditures start even before elections are announced. Parties spend on political rallies, transportation and appointment of workers. He said that the Election Commission’s budget for managing the elections is expected to be 10 to 15 per cent of the total expenditure estimate. India has a total of 96.6 crore voters and it is expected that Rs 1,400 will be spent on each voter this year, according to Rao.

The estimated election expense for this year’s elections in India is more than what was spent on the US Presidential Elections in 2020. In America around USD 14.4 billion dollars, which is approximately Rs 1.2 lakh crore. One must note that political parties give a very low figure to the Election Commission, when it comes to sharing their expenditure. In reality, the expenditure is much more than what is made public by them, according to the president of CMS.