Elections to officially cost over Rs1300 crore

According to official estimates, the general elections in April-May this year are expected to cost the taxpayer well over Rs1,300 crore ($325 million), which is what the last elections cost.

"The provisional expenditure in the last general elections in 2004 was around Rs1,300 crore and is expected to increase in this year's Lok Sabha elections," says a reference handbook for the 2009 polls issued by the Press Information Bureau.

The spending dipped only once in 1957 to Rs59 million but after that has been moving upwards. "While an expenditure of Rs.7.32 crore was incurred in 1962, it gradually rose to Rs.23.03 crore in the sixth general elections in 1977," the handbook states.

The figure almost doubled to Rs54.77 crore in 1980 and touched Rs154.22 crore in the 1989 elections. It shot up in 1998 to Rs666.22 crore and then to Rs880 crore in 1999.

This does not include the cost of holding Assembly polls in States like Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

On the other hand, a study conducted by the Centre for Media Studies puts the expense at a staggering Rs 10,000 crore, which is more than what Barack Obama and his rivals together spent in last year's US presidential race.

The CMS includes about Rs 2,500 crore which it estimates is being spent through unofficial payments to voters by the candidates. This, according to the study, is more than double the Rs 4,500 crore that the last Lok Sabha polls cost.

According to the study, the government spending would be just about 20 per cent of the total expenses, including about Rs 1,300 crore by Election Commission and about Rs 700 crore spent by various central and state government agencies for purposes like photo identity cards, EVMs and polling booths. The rest would be spent by parties and individual candidates to garner votes.