Money Begets Votes: Spend Crores to Win

GOPINATH MUNDE, SENIOR LEADER, BJP

There is an adage ‘money begets money’. In any business or enterprise big capital brings big returns. More money you spend in business more is the profit. The trick of the trade has now gone to the elections. Electoral politics is getting money oriented.

Only the other day, Gopinath Munde, the national vice president of the BJP and a member of Lok Sabha from Maharashtra declared in Mumbai that he had spent more than rupees eight crores in the 2009 general elections to win the seat. In the heat of the moment, Munde went on to challenge the Election Commission saying ‘do what you can do but I spent rupees eight crores against the prescribed upper limit of Rs. 40 lakhs for a candidate contesting Lok Sabha seat.

Taking cognizance of Munde’s confession of violating the code of conduct, the Election Commission has ordered an inquiry into the whole affairs. Munde is not worried since he is on record saying that even if the Election Commission disqualifies him as an MP, he would not mind since the elections are just a few months away. But the matter does end there. Under the Representation of the People Act, if the charge of over spending is established against any candidate, he or she can be debarred from contesting elections for three years. If not impossible, it will be extremely difficult for the Commission to establish the charge and prove that Munde did spend more than Rs.40 lakhs. In the criminal jurisprudence, the onus of proof lies on prosecution.

Leave aside the legal intricacies of the case, Munde was honest enough to say that he spent rupees 8 crores in the elections. There are many others including a large number of Ministers in the UPA Government, former Ministers and Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) in almost all political parties who are said to have spent as big an amount as 40-50 crores in elections. You are innocent till caught.

A tribal leader and former chief minister of Jharkhand reportedly had doled out cash to voters ranging from 1000 rupees to 2000 rupees for each vote. Why Jharkhand, in states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Harayana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, cash, liquor and gifts are freely distributed on the eve of elections to win votes. In Goa, some candidates distributed colour television sets. Some political parties openly promise to distribute TV sets and laptops to the people if voted to power. There are political parties who promise free electricity if voted to power. This is nothing but allurement and illegitimate way of influencing electorates. The Election Commission despite its best of efforts and intentions has not been able to put a curb on such practice of political parties.

Some enterprising candidates generally would reach out to village pramukhs or any influential man of the area and in town the goons and the dadas, pay them hefty amount to ensure that voters turn up at the polling stations and caste votes in their favour. It is not for nothing that the Election Commission officers and observers have in the past intercepted and seized huge amount of cash being carried in the constituencies on eve of the elections. Despite this, hundreds of crores of rupees are distributed on the eve of the polls.

This is high time that the Election Commission raises the cap on election expenditure from the current limit of Rs. 40 lakhs to at least a crore for Lok Sabha and Rs 50 lakhs for Legislative Assembly, though this step may not necessarily stop the use of black money in the elections.

~R. K. Sinha