How much will be spent on the grand festival of democracy that lasts for one and a half months?

The next Lok Sabha elections in the country will be held in seven phases. The Election Commission has announced the dates of Lok Sabha elections on Saturday. Voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections will be held on April 19. The second phase of voting will be held on 26 April, the third phase on 7 May and the fourth phase on 13 May. Voting will be held for the fifth phase on May 20, for the sixth phase on May 25 and for the seventh phase on June 1. The results will be declared on June 4. It will take one and a half months after the completion of the election exercise. Now let us know how much was spent in the first elections in the country and how much did the expenditure increase after that?

Who bears the expenses of the electoral system?

First of all, let us know that the entire expense of Lok Sabha elections is borne by the Central Government. This includes expenses ranging from administrative work of the Election Commission to preparation of voter identity cards, security arrangements during elections, polling centres, purchase of EVM machines, voter awareness etc.

Expenditure estimates for Lok Sabha elections

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented the Interim Budget-2024 last month. An allocation of Rs 2183.78 crore was made for election expenses in the year 2023. In the interim budget, that allocation was increased to Rs 2442.85 crore. Out of that allocation, Rs 1000 crore will be spent on Lok Sabha elections. The allocation for Voter ID has been increased to Rs 76.66 crore for the year 2023-24. Rs 34.84 crore has been allocated for EVMs in the budget. A total of Rs 1003.20 crore has been allocated for other election expenses. Rs 321.89 crore has also been given to the Election Commission for conducting elections in the financial year. Out of that, Rs 306.06 crore is for post-election expenses. A separate allocation of Rs 2.01 crore has been made for public works. An amount of Rs 13.82 crore has been allocated for administrative services. The Finance Minister had made an additional allocation of Rs 3147.92 crore for election-related expenses and Rs 73.67 crore for the administrative expenses of the Election Commission during the winter session of Parliament last year. Rs 3870 crore was spent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

How much was spent in the first Lok Sabha elections? After independence, elections were held for the first time in the country in 1951-52. At that time Rs 10.5 crores were spent. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the election expenditure increased to Rs 3870.3 crore. During this period, the number of voters has also increased from 17.5 crore to 91.2 crore. Except for the 1957 general election, all Lok Sabha elections have seen an increase in expenditure. Between 2009 and 2014, election expenditure increased three times. Rs 1114.4 crore was spent in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Due to increase in election expenses

The expenditure of Lok Sabha elections is increasing due to many reasons. Firstly, the number of voters keeps increasing in elections. This leads to greater expenditure on resources. Moreover, everything from candidates to polling stations and parliamentary constituencies keeps moving. In the first Lok Sabha elections held in the year 1951-52, 1874 candidates from 53 parties contested for 401 Lok Sabha seats. This number has increased significantly in the year 2019. In the last Lok Sabha elections, 8,054 candidates from 673 parties contested a total of 543 seats. Voting took place at a total of 10.37 lakh polling stations.

How much will be spent on the grand festival of democracy that lasts for one and a half months?

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the tenure of the current 17th Lok Sabha is ending on June 16, 2024. All preparations for the Lok Sabha elections have been completed. There are about 96.8 crore registered voters in the country. A total of 10.5 lakh polling stations will be set up in the country for voting. 1.5 crore polling officers and security personnel will be deployed for the elections. Arrangements have been made for 55 lakh EVMs and four lakh vehicles.