Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections is going to be held on 26 April. Then this election is going to be the most expensive election. As claimed in the stages of a private organization, the estimated expenditure of this election is Rs 1.35 lakh crore. Which is more than double the expenditure incurred in the 2019 elections.
What expenses are included?
Then in the general election around Rs. 60,000 crores were spent. CMS has been tracking election spending for more than 35 years. N Bhaskar Rao, president of the organization, said this broad expenditure includes all direct or indirect expenditure related to the elections, including that of political parties and organisations, candidates, the government and the Election Commission.
Estimated cost?
Regarding this, a president of the organization said in an interview that initially we had estimated the cost at Rs 1.2 lakh crore. However, after disclosing the electoral bond portion, we revised this figure to Rs. 1.35 lakh crore has been made.
60 percent election funds from unknown sources
It was said that this estimate includes expenses for 3-4 months before the announcement of voting dates. Rao insisted that the money came into the process through various means other than electoral bonds. A recent observation by the Society for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed a “significant lack of transparency” in political funding in India. It claimed that from 2004-05 to 2022-23, the country's six major political parties contributed about 60 per cent, totaling Rs. Rs 19,083 crore, including money received from electoral bonds, came from unknown sources.
Election results on June 4
Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, BJP is in the race to gain power for the third consecutive time. At the same time, opposition parties are trying to compete with BJP together under the India Alliance. Voting will be held in a total of 7 phases, after which the results will be declared on June 4.