Telangana Assembly elections: Campaign expenditures to set new record, says survey

Huge election expenditures by the political parties have been a tendency that can’t be ignored. Upcoming Assembly elections for Telangana are likely to set new record as the gap between dissolution and polling date stretched to 90 days, which is usually 30 days. According to an estimate, each candidate will be spending Rs three lakh per day for campaign.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has announced names of 105 candidates for the upcoming elections and the poll campaigns have already started. Explaining the cost of each day’s expenditure, a TRS candidate said, as reported by Deccan Chronicle, “At present, about 200 workers follow us during the campaign. We have to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner in addition to liquor. We have to pay to hire the vehicles.”

Aspiring candidates waiting for their names to figure in the list for Congress and allies are luckier in this sense. The reason being that the Congress and its allies are yet to disclose the names of the candidates and are taking time so that there is no conflict between the leaders.

Taking account of election notification to come on November 12, each candidate is expected to expend around rupees three lakh a day, based on the requirements of the campaign. The estimate that political parties are heeding to is that per candidate might spend upto Rs 10 crore, or even Rs 15 crore, provided they want maximum support from the supporters.

Centre for Media Studies (CMS) data provide an account that in Karnataka Assembly elections, political parties and their candidates spent around Rs 9,500 crore to Rs 10,500 crore — twice the amount spent in the previous Assembly election in the state in 2013. According to the Election Commission of India’s guidelines and Section 77 of the Representation of People’s Act 1951, each political party and their candidates have to submit the amount details they have spent in the political rallies.

Now with the current trend being followed by the political parties and the candidates in the Assembly elections in the state of Telangana, shocking revelations are bound to make the headlines. However, we all will have to wait till the results are out on December 11.

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