question_answer

Are the elections too expensive in our country?

Answer:

(i) A large amount of money is spent on conducting elections in India. For instance, the government spent about Rs.1,300 crores in conducting Lok Sabha elections in 2004.

(ii) It is about Rs.20 per person on the voters' list. The amount spent by partial and candidates was more than what the government spent.

(iii) Roughly speaking, the expenditure made by government, parties and candidates was around Rs.3,000 crores i.e. Rs.50 per vote.

So elections are too expensive for our country. It seems that our poor country cannot afford to hold elections once in every five years or sometimes mid-term elections.