7 Key Takeaways: Cost of Politics
Population: 1.44 billion
Head of Government: Narendra Modi
Ruling party/coalition: Bharatiya Janata Party
Last election: 2024
Next election: 2029
Number of registered voters: 968.9 million
Annual salary of member of legislature: Rs 1.2 million (US$14,000) excluding benefits
Year of study: 2025
Rs 3-4 lakhs per month is the minimum expenditure that goes towards routine mobilisational work in a Lok Sabha constituency prior to an election period.
Based on the interviews conducted for this study between Rs 5-10 crore has become the expenditure norm for candidates fighting for a Lok Sabha seat. However candidates can sometimes reach, or even exceed, Rs 100 crores.
Vote-buying mainly takes place in the run up to polling day with Rs 2,000-3,000 given to nearly all voters in a constituency.
Average in-office constituency ranged from Rs 7-10 lakh per month, meaning that annually an MP can spend more than Rs 10 million.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the likelihood of victory for ‘crorepati candidates’ was 19.6%, compared to just 0.7% for those with assets below Rs 1 crore
In the 18th Lok Sabha, only one in every 20 MPs is younger than 35, whilst just 74 seats, or 13.6% of the total, are held by women, a decline from the previous legislature.
In the 17th Lok Sabha, nearly 88% of members declared assets worth Rs 1 crore or above, a figure that has increased to 93% following the 2024 election
Population: 1.44 billion
Head of Government: Narendra Modi
Ruling party/coalition: Bharatiya Janata Party
Last election: 2024
Next election: 2029
Number of registered voters: 968.9 million
Annual salary of member of legislature: Rs 1.2 million (US$14,000) excluding benefits
Year of study: 2025
Key Findings
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Context
- The Lok Sabha is a directly elected house with 545 members, 543 are elected from a single member constituencies – each with an average population of around 15 lakh making them some of the largest constituencies in the world - based on the first-past-the-post system.
- After winning consecutive electoral landslides in 2014 and 2019, the BJP was unable to do so again in 2024. Winning just 240 seats it fell short of the 272 seats required to form a government and had to rely on its alliance partners to form the government for a third time in a row.
- Numerous regulatory loopholes and weak enforcement of the existing campaign finance regulations have failed to prevent the significant growth of corporate or private money into the electoral system. Between 2009 and 2019 the total declared expenditure on elections increased 175% in ways that are uneven and impact on political competition.
Drivers of the cost of politics
- An aspiring politician’s routine requirements to carry out socio-cultural outreach activities in their prospective constituency can start months, or even years, before an election bid. Attending weddings, funerals or socio-cultural and religious activities comes with financial expectations that the aspiring candidate must meet.
- Maintaining a political network of party cadres, helping out people in distress and funding party activities year round in the constituency are additional expectations that come with resource requirements which fall on aspiring politicians.
- Large number of luxury cars need to be hired by a candidate for use during public rallies and roadshows across the campaign period explained two recent election contestants. With the role of perception and glamour having increased greatly in politics, such fanfare and pomp has become mandatory for grabbing the attention of the voters and convincing them of an aspirants political clout.
- Media costs too, are a major source of expenditure during election campaign periods. Ensuring coverage, from both print and television media of their political programme requires considerable payments to be made.
- Though a persistent feature of Indian elections in the past, the scale of vote-buying has reached an unprecedented level. Nearly all political aspirants interviewed agreed that even if they are not in a position to distribute money for votes, the actions of political opponents forces them to do so.
- After the elections, expenses for the winning candidates go up rather than down. Every MP in India is expected to distribute patronage across their political networks, rewarding those who have supported their political journey or aided them during the campaign period.
Sources of funds
- The primary sources of campaign funds are personal wealth, contributions from family, friends, peers and supporters. Other avenues for raising the necessary funds to run included borrowing from friends/business groups, using crowdfunding channels, selling assets and taking on loans.
- Interviewees across political parties contended that their parent parties, except for a handful of national and regional parties, expect them to arrange the bulk of funds for their campaigns.
- This self-financing model tends to benefit dynastic or already wealthy candidates, and places marginalised groups at a further disadvantage.
Implications of high costs of politics
- The growing culture of vote-buying and parties and candidates wanting to capture power by any means have opened the door for influx of private money into electoral battles.
- In recent elections, regionally dominant mining, coal or real estate barons, who hitherto only funded elections from outside, have taken the plunge into electoral politics. Using their money to gain proximity to party leaders, candidates with business backgrounds or those who can finance their election expenses having made significant strides, either in securing the nominations of major political parties or by contesting as independent candidates.
- The rising costs of political activities, particularly escalating election expenses, have negative consequences for aspiring women and young politicians, especially those from non-privileged family backgrounds.
- Increasingly elected candidates are primarily focused on raising funds for their party and for their re-election, as well as recovering the huge sums they have spent to win political office or returning favours to people who have supported them financially. This not only takes precedence over effectively fulfilling their legislative function but subverts and undermines governance more generally as dubious deals are made with these financial backers to advance their own business interests.
Recommendations
- Enforcing existing limits. While a limit has been set for individual candidates expenditure in elections , the ceiling on candidate expenditure has become meaningless in the absence of any scrutiny by ECI or other federal agencies. To make regulation work, key oversight bodies like ECI must be comprehensively mandated and resourced, and augmented by effective judicial system, to go after violators.
- Political parties in India are devoid of any constitutional recognition and are treated as voluntary associations. This means they are able to avoid regulation or scrutiny of their actions and behaviour by an external body. Constitutionally recognising political parties would allow them to be subject to regulatory and institutional scrutiny.
- Voter sensitisation by civil society organisations, media and ECI should receive priority and can build on the successful approaches to improve voters’ participation in recent years.
