Political Campaign Costs in Telangana could reach Half a Billion Dollars (Rs. 3500 Crores)

Hyderabad: This youngest and newly formed state “Telangana” is going for an election for the second time after its formation in 2014. The constituents of the state would elect 119 candidates for the state assembly. All the political parties in the state will on average spend Rs. 25 crores ($3.5 million) for each constituency. This will be spent solely to influence the voter in one way or other. The state itself has a GDP of Rs. 84000 Crore ($120 billion/$120,000 million).

If only the money were spent on something beneficial for its people, they would surely change the lives of many people, thus, impacting the common man greatly. The unofficial election campaign expenses and costs are unfortunately a waste of money and a lost opportunity for all the good that could be done for the people of this state.

In a typical constituency, there are at least 200,000 constituents and there could be up to 20 wards/localities. Each constituency could really put this money to good use and beneficial causes if it were not spent on this election campaign. For example, at a cost of twenty-five crore rupees per constituency, each locality could be equipped with a high-tech internet accessible convenient library for its people and a hi-tech gym that will be helpful for all the youth in the local area. This would mean the establishment of 20 such internet libraries and gyms at par with libraries and gyms in the developed countries. In most cities, libraries have not been renovated for decades now and are not even equipped with latest technologies that could be used by the people in the state.

A politician from one of the constituencies called Warangal, Puli Sarangapani who is an academician and a leader who fought for the separate state multiple times (1968-69, and in 2009-14) spanning over multiple decades said that as a student he sacrificed a great deal for the cause of Telangana and that many other students also did the same in the hopes of getting government jobs in the public sector.

When asked why so much is being spent in an election, Puli Sarangapani, who was an aspiring politician for a ticket to be in the race from the ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) representing the Warangal East constituency, said that many times there is a certain group of voters who are vulnerable to the lure of easy money and this could be at least 10% of the voter list. Their vulnerability could be taken advantage of by the contestants to get the election outcome in their favor. Puli Sarangapani, believes that his non-corrupt attitude and thinking has set him back many times. However, his agenda for people was to create jobs in the public sector.

The money is usually collected and spent like a ponzi-scheme or a multi-level marketing scheme from various smaller politicians. What entices the smaller politicians are unknown returns in the future. In the hope of getting various party posts at various levels in various forms they are willing to spend any amount of money, and, of course, the highest bidder will get the post! Anyone who aspires to get even a small position or a big one in the government will be enticed to spend money in hopes of a bigger return in the future. This means that the money spent will be collected in the form of corruption and kickbacks. This is the unspoken truth in politics in India, but it is true.

Politics in India are not the same they used to be in the past. Politicians were loyal to the parties that gave them life. Nowadays, however, they change parties and loyalty like they would change their clothes. Politics has become a business model where profitability and stability of profits is assured. The costs of running an election plus the cost of seeking a ticket will be balanced out by future gains when they come into power. This, of course, is unethical although true in many cases. Unfortunately, this model is refined over years and ultimately causes the rich to get even richer and the poor to become even poorer.