Nirmala Sitharaman doesn’t have money to fight Lok Sabha polls. How much does a contender need?

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she turned down the offer of her party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as she “doesn't have the kind of money”. She made the remarks on Wednesday (27 March) at a summit of Times Now.

Sitharaman revealed that BJP president JP Nadda gave her the option to contest from either Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu but she rejected the offer due to lack of funds.

“After thinking over a week or ten days, I just went back to say... maybe not. I do not have that kind of money to contest,” PTI quoted her as saying.

“I also have a problem whether it is Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. It's also going to be a question of various other winnability criteria that they use...Are you from this community or are you from that religion? Are you from this? I said no, I do not think I am going to able to do it,” she added.

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The senior BJP leader is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka. Sitharaman’s remarks have put focus on the question: How much is needed to contest elections in India?

Let’s understand.

How much candidates can spend on polls

The Election Commission of India (ECI) caps the election spending by a candidate. In 2022, the poll body revised the election expenditure limits.

In larger states, a nominee can spend up to Rs 95 lakh per Lok Sabha constituency. The election expenditure limit for candidates is Rs 75 lakh in smaller states.

Candidates contesting Assembly polls in larger states can disburse Rs 40 lakh. The limit for smaller states is Rs 28 lakh.

Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin at a rally to support a DMK candidate in Theni district for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on 24 March 2024. PTI File Photo

The expenditure is calculated from the nomination of each candidate till the completion of the election process.

As per The Hindu, these election expenses include the amounts spent on public meetings, rallies, hoardings, advertisements, pamphlets, campaign material, and so on.

Candidates are asked to maintain a separate accounts book for election expenditures and file these expenses with the ECI.

Under Section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, an incorrect account or spending beyond the ECI cap could result in the disqualification of the candidate for up to three years.

Candidates have to submit their expenditure statement to the election commission within 30 days of the completion of the elections, reported Hindustan Times (HT).

Despite the ceiling and the law, candidates fielded by all major political parties go beyond these fixed amounts “by a wide margin even when we do not consider the illegal distribution of cash and gifts to voters”, former IAS officer Rangarajan R wrote for The Hindu.

Candidates also need money for…

Candidates have to deposit a security amount with the poll panel for contesting elections.

For general candidates, this amount is fixed at Rs 25,000 for Lok Sabha polls, while those from the Scheduled Castes and tribes have to pay Rs 12,500.

In Assembly elections, candidates from the general category deposit Rs 10,000 and  SC/ ST candidates give Rs 5,000.

The Representation of People Act mandates the security deposit to ensure that only serious candidates file nominations.

This security deposit is forfeited by the ECI if a candidate secures less than one-sixth of the total number of valid votes cast in the constituency.

How much did parties spend in 2019 LS polls?

It must be noted that there is no cap on the expenditure of political parties during polls.

During the 2019 elections, the official expenditure declared by the BJP was Rs 1,264 crore, while that by Congress was Rs 820 crore.

A study released in 2019 described that year's Lok Sabha polls as the “most expensive election ever, anywhere”. The study, Poll Expenditure: The 2019 Elections, by a private think tank the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), claimed that political parties spent about Rs 55-60,000 crore on elections, with the BJP accounting for 45 per cent of the total expenditure.

The share of Congress was around 15-20 per cent, reported Deccan Herald (DH).

Supporters of BJP attend a rally being addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election campaign rally in Prayagraj, on 24 February 2022. Reuters File Photo

The report claimed that about Rs 12,000-15,000 crore was distributed to about 20-25 per cent of voters.

While over Rs 20,000 crore was spent on campaigns and publicity by the parties, around Rs 5,000-6,000 crore went to logistics and over Rs 3,000 crore for other purposes.

The amount spent on formal canvassing, allowed by the ECI, was Rs 12,000 crore, DH reported.

According to The Hindu, the CMS predicts that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections can see a whopping expenditure of Rs 1 lakh crore.

To put things in perspective, around Rs 10 crore or less was spent on each of the first three general elections in India. This amount reached over Rs 1,000 crore during the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Around Rs 3,870 crore was spent on the general elections in 2014, HT reported.

With inputs from agencies