While individual candidates need to adhere to electoral expenditure limitations, the absence of comparable restrictions on political party spending and third-party spenders/campaigners has paved the way for a skewed electoral landscape, where financial muscle trumps meritocracy.
Authors
Sanjay Kumar, Professor at and currently the Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi.
Aditi Singh, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Abhishek Sharma, Researcher, Lokniti-CSDS.
Summary
In the colourful mosaic of Indian democracy lies a fundamental question that strikes at the core of our democratic ethos: the issue of electoral expenditure. In the 2019 general elections alone, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress collectively spent an astronomical sum of over ₹20 billion.
While the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RPA) meticulously outlines expenditure limits for individual candidates, a glaring gap remains — the absence of comparable restrictions on political party spending and third-party spenders/campaigners.
This discrepancy has not only opened the floodgates for unchecked expenditure by parties but has also paved the way for a skewed electoral landscape, where financial muscle trumps meritocracy.
Published in: The Hindu
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