Pricey polls
Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
The parliamentary election of 2004 in India is no doubt the biggest democratic exercise in the world but there has been a phenomenal rise in expenditure in undertaking the shows over the years.Official estimates say the interim budget presented in February this year makde a provision of Rs 818. 38 crore for the current elections, slightly less than Rs 880 crore that were required for conducting the previous polls in 1999. The last four parliamentary elections 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999 have witnessed a huge increase in the total amount spent on them. The fragile coalitions have seen three general elections between 1996 and 1999 costing Rs 2143 crore to the state exchequer. While the total expenditure on ninth parliamentary polls was about Rs 154 crore in 1989, it went up to more than Rs 666 crore for the 1998 elections. The first elections in free India conducted in 1952 had cost Rs 10.45 crore before it had come down to half that figure five years later.
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