Money Power In Indian Elections: How The Assets Of Parties And Candidates Grew

Richest Parties and Candidates

In March 2024, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) published its analysis of source of funding of national political parties in the financial year 2022-23. The ADR found that more than 59 per cent of donations or funds are from unknown or untraceable sources. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared that it received around Rs 14,000 crore as income by unknown sources, which is 76 per cent of the total income of national parties through unknown sources. The Congress declared the same as Rs 315 crore, which is around 17 per cent of the total income of national parties from unknown sources.  

In September 2023, the ADR published a report, according to which the BJP is the wealthiest party in India with its assets worth Rs 6,046 crore for the financial year 2021-22. The party’s assets grew by Rs 1,000 crore or 21 per cent from the previous financial year. It also accounted for 68 per cent of the total assets of all national parties.

Whereas, the main national party of the opposition, declared Rs 805.16 as its assets; this was an increase of more than 15 per cent from the previous financial year. However, the real jump in asset was in the case of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). The party reported an increase of 151 per cent from Rs 182 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 458 crore in 2021-22. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was the only party which declared a decline in its asset by 5 per cent between the two financial years.

The numbers show that no party in the country comes near the ruling BJP in terms of assets. Even back in 2017, ADR had reported how BJP’s assets had increased during 2004-05 to 2015-16 by more than 600 per cent. While Congress’ asset increased at around 350 per cent for the same duration.     

Apart from political parties, assets of individual politicians also matter when it comes to the fair functioning of democracy.

Dr Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, an NRI doctor, contesting from the Guntur constituency on Telugu Desam Party's ticket is the richest candidate of Lok Sabha election 2024, so far. He has declared assets worth over Rs 5,000 crore.

In the first phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, more than 400 candidates were reported to be crorepatis. While BJP’s 90 per cent candidates were crorepatis, the number stood at 88 per cent for the Congress. In the second phase, Congress leader from Karnataka, Venkataramane Gowda, declared assets worth more than Rs 600 crore, which makes him the wealthiest candidate who went to polls in  this phase.

However, contesting in the same phase, BJP’s sitting MP Tejasvi Surya made headlines when a Bengaluru-based organisation named bangalorevotes.com reported that his wealth increased considerably between 2019 and 2024. In 2019, Surya had declared assets worth around Rs 13 lakh, which stood at more than Rs 4 crore in 2024, according to the organisation. It also reported that in the last five years, the BJP’s wealth grew by 1,000 per cent in Bengaluru, while the Congress wealth grew at 75 per cent.

In the third phase, the richest candidate is BJP’s Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo who is contesting from South Goa. Her declared wealth stands at Rs 1,361 crore. In this phase, the average wealth of BJP candidates is at Rs 44 crore, highest among the parties in the fray. The Samajwadi Party (SP) takes the second spot with average wealth of candidates standing at Rs 42 crore while the Congress is a distant third at Rs 20 crore.

Funding Via, Now Unconstitutional, Electoral Bonds Scheme

In February 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) declared electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional. The scheme was introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2017. It aimed to provide an anonymous bank channel to individuals and companies who wished to donate funds to political parties. However, because of the alleged opacity of the scheme and the potential to damage the level playing field, it was challenged in the court and eventually struck down. While pronouncing the scheme unconstitutional, the court also ordered the State Bank of India (SBI), the sole seller of the bonds, and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to make public the data regarding buyers and those who redeemed the bonds purchased during April 1, 2019 to February 15, 2024.

The data, reportedly, revealed that the BJP received the biggest share of the funds under the scheme. The saffron party encashed bonds worth more than Rs 8,000 crore; it amounts to around 50 per cent of the bonds encashed. The second highest beneficiary was the Congress with Rs 1,952 crore, which is far behind the BJP number. On third position was the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) which encashed bonds worth Rs 1,705 crore and Bharatiya Rashatra Samiti (BRS), formally Telangana Rashatra Samiti (TRS), received Rs 1,322 crore and became the fourth highest beneficiary.

Further probe into the data revealed that 41 companies, which were facing inquiries by central agencies like the CBI, the ED, and the IT, donated more than Rs 2,000 crore to the BJP. Out of this, around Rs 1,600 crore were donated after raids by these agencies, claimed civil society activists in the Supreme Court.

The second highest buyer of the electoral bonds was a company called Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL). The data pointed out that the company got many government infrastructure projects after it bought the electoral bonds, most of which were encashed by BJP.  

One of the major allegations on the scheme was that it opens up possibilities for quid pro quo or arm twisting by the ruling dispensation.

The data also revealed that 33 loss-making companies, through electoral bonds, donated Rs 576 crore, out of which 75 per cent was given to the BJP. These companies showed that they had negative or zero profit after taxes in seven years during 2016-17 to 2022-23.  

Impact on Democracy

Elections in India have become an expensive affair. The ongoing Lok Sabha election 2024 are said to be the biggest and costliest in the world. N Bhaskar Rao of Centre for Media Studies, a non-profit which has been tracking Indian elections for over three decade, was quoted by news reports saying that the overall budget of General Elections 2024 is approximately 1.3 lakh crores; the number has doubled from the previous elections held in 2019. This number includes government expenditure, political parties’ and candidates’ expenditure, among other things.

Experts also say that since the elections are now held in more phases resulting in the increase in the overall duration of the process, the budget to hold elections has also gone up.

A working paper published in March 2023 claimed that income and wealth inequality in India at present is worse than it was in the 1920s. The paper states that the top 10 per cent of the population in India held 65 per cent of the share in wealth in 2022-23, while the bottom 50 per cent of the population only had 6.4 per cent.

In a country where the union government is providing free ration to 80 crore people, where the national unemployment rate stands at 7.6 per cent; the country which stands at 111 out of 125 on the Global Hunger Index, elections and politics marred by money-power is a deterrent for democracy.

In the campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, we are witnessing the continuing trend of huge rallies, road shows, helicopters dropping candidates and leaders from one state to another, etc while people–the voters–are rendered nothing more than ‘star-stuck’. Many political parties hire agencies to run their campaigns offline and online. Narratives are built on social media which may or may not reflect the situation on the ground but capture the headlines, nonetheless, especially on television news channels.

What and where are the real issues of the voters? The promises of basic facilities such as bijli-sadak-paani are still relevant after 70 years of Independence. Does this not sing the tragic song of the state of Indian democracy? Elections are the moment of opportunity for voters to question the political parties and politicians about their past promises; it is a strong medium to hold them accountable. But with so much money in the air who will pay heed to the common people?