Performance and Expenditure of National Political Parties in GE'04

The adjacent table provides the performance of major national parties during the last General Elections in 2004. Bahujan Samaj Party cannot technically be called as a national party inspite of it having contested in as many as 435 states but managing to secure seats in only 19 of those 435 constituencies. A 4.36% winning scenario. BJP managed to secure 138 seats while INC managed 145 winning constituencies.

A look at the state-wise performance of these major parties demonstrate the grip each party has on the political atmosphere. BSP secured all of its 19 seats from the state of Uttar Pradesh alone. A report here says that with an eye on the national stage BSP will be fielding candidates from as many as 500 constituencies, a figure that is higher than both Congress(>400) and BJP(430).

BSP’s numbers game would seem to be working if recent state elections are any indication. According to a study by Marketing and Development Associates (MDRA), a New Delhi-based research consultancy, the party’s vote share rose from 4.5% to 6.5% in Chhattisgarh; 4.8% to 11% in Madhya Pradesh; 2.5% to 14% in Delhi; and from 3.2% to 7.6% in Rajasthan. While the later figures are based on the November 2008 assembly elections in these states, the earlier ones are based on the 2004 general election.

Seems like BSP's strategy of Social Engineering is about to take off in the 120/543 reserved seats including 79 for SC's which comprises the prime vote bank of the party. Of these, 17 seats are in Uttar Pradesh alone. BSP is targeting a vote percentage of about 10% of the total up from 5.33% in 2004 comprising mainly of the Dalit vote bank. Mayawati has aspirations to become the Prime Minister of India and would be instrumental in leading the Third Front post-elections if it manages to do just that. In contrast Samajwadi Party managed to secure 4.32% of the total votes although it won 36 seats (17 more than BSP) in the last General Elections. BSP is hoping to convert the higher vote percentage into seats for a greater say in the national politics.  

Money Power in Indian Polity (Source)

"I have come to the conclusion that muscle power is less harmful than money power. One could silence the muscle power but money power is really a great blot," CEC Gopalaswami has said.

And there are reasons for the EC to be worried. The Income Tax returns filed by 21 political parties show the sheer amount of money at play.The total money spent on elections in 1991 was Rs 359 crore which rose to Rs 597 crore in 1996, Rs 666 in 1998, Rs 886 crore in 1999 and Rs 1,300 crore 2004.The assets and incomes of the political parties, too, have been growing phenomenally.

Two major regional parties Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lead the tables. The Samajwadi Party registered an average 41 per cent growth annually in its assets from 2002 to 2006.In 2002 SP had assets worth Rs 13.86 crore, which grew to Rs 13.91 crore in 2003, Rs 26.56 crore in 2004, Rs 38.01 crore in 2005 and reached Rs 77.07 crore in 2006.

Mayawati's BSP's assets grew at over 32 per cent per year. It was Rs 10.92 crore in 2002, Rs 39.39 crore in 2003, Rs 43.69 crore in 2004, Rs 43.10 crore in 2005 and Rs 44.06 crore in 2006.

The growth of the Congress and the BJP is best reflected in the income figures. Congress' aggregate income grew by Rs 631 crore from 2001 to 2006 out of which Rs 343.51 crore were spent on elections.In 2002 Congress' income was Rs 61.50 crore, in 2003 it was Rs 69.56 crore and grew to Rs 153.04 crore in 2004, while in 2005 and 2006 the income was Rs 222.07 crore and Rs 124.93 crore respectively.

While the BJP's aggregate income rose by over Rs 327 crore out of which Rs 238 crore were spent on polls.In 2002 BJP's income was Rs 44.22 crore, in 2003 it was Rs 49.46 crore and grew to Rs 91.49 crore in 2004, while in 2005 and 2006 the income was Rs 104.12 crore and Rs 38.34 crore respectively.

"The kind of political system that we have today is forcing the candidates to spend this kind of money. This has led to a situation where our entire democracy has become a tamasha (drama)," Arvind Kejriwal, founder of Parivartan, said.

The 2 major political parties alone account ofr an expenditure of about 600 crore rupees for the elections. Include the regional parties and the numbers are staggering to say the least. A report in The Hindu here says:

The Election Commission of India, political parties and candidates will incur an expenditure of over Rs. 10,000 crore during the three-month-long run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The expenditure incurred in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections was Rs. 4,500 crore.

Just a couple of months away from the 15th General Elections of the largest democracy in the world, the biggest challenge facing the Election Commission is tackling the lethal combination of muscle and money power in Indian polity.It's an open secret now that the actual amount spent by political parties on election campaign is much higher than the details they `officially' submit with the election commission. While in an assembly election average spending by a candidate is said to be about Rs 50 lakh, in a parliamentary election, per constituency expense on election campaigning is about Rs 2 crore. (Source)