According to Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma, forthcoming Lok Sabha polls will entail an expenditure of 5000 crore rupees with estimated 10 crore rupees spent on each constituency. Assembly elections in four states are likely to cost State exchequer about 1000 crore rupees.
Democracy is not a cheap and easy form of Government. Actual expenditures could be more than what is anticipated. But the important question that arises in the context of elections is that many criminals and tainted candidates do find their way into the Lok Sabha. There is the money power and there is nexus between the politicians and the criminals. The Election Commission cannot fight these evils and the State has to evolve a mechanism that would break this unholy nexus between crime and politics. Can people get justice when criminals and mafia are returned to the Lok Sabha to frame laws? Corruption in its various manifestations has become the bane of our Parliamentary system. We need drastic changes in our entire polling system focusing on keeping criminals, swindlers, mafia and other anti-social elements at bay. If a candidate comes to the Election Commission with the suggestion that he is capable of spending anything up to a thousand crore rupees for his election campaign, it is a pointer to show to what extent money power can influence the polling. Unless crime and money power are eradicated, our democracy will remain faced with serious challenges.
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