The rising cost of politics in India is preventing candidature of women and young candidates in elections due to various structural and procedural challenges and oligarchization of electoral Politics.
India’s 2024 general election was billed as the most expensive ever.
According to a study by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a staggering INR 1.35 lakh crore (US$16 billion) was spent by political parties and candidates in 2024 polls. Money power is making a huge adverse impact on democratic integrity and Unregulated institutional design of political parties too.

These are some of the major and pathbreaking findings of a study conducted by the Observer Research Foundation [ ORF] Fellows, Niranjan Sahoo and Ambar Kumar Ghosh titled, “The Cost of Politics in India” for Westminster Foundation for Democracy, [WFD] United Kingdom. Some Key highlights of the study are:
Exponential Rise in Costs associated with routine political activities: While most analysts link rising costs to the election campaigns, the study found an equal if not more cost is involved for political aspirants seeking to nurture their constituencies, and more importantly for securing nominations from their parties. An aspiring politician’s routine requirements to carry out socio-cultural outreach activities in their prospective constituency can start months, or even years, before an election bid.. An estimated Rs 3-4 lakhs per month as the minimum expenditure that goes toward this routine mobilizational work in a Lok Sabha constituency. Thus, by the time a candidate secures party ticket, he/she would have spent several crores in routine political activities and these are largely borne by the candidates not parties. In richer southern states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, some of the political candidates shared that parties and/or candidates exchanged Rs 5,000-7,000 to each voter!.
Rising costs associated with securing party nominations:

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Many interviewees (particularly from regional parties) confessed that as aspiring candidates they not only have to demonstrate theirmonetary clout to the party leadership, they are expected to fund their campaigns and generously donate to party coffers or fund certain candidates’ campaigns. Some candidates particularly from South shared that they had to donate 3-4 crore to secure party nomination. Given these realities, leading parties tend to opt for well-resourced (moneyed) candidates in internal selection processes.
Escalating Campaign Costs: The cumulative costs of election campaigns in India have increased exponentially in recent years.
Based on the interviews conducted for this study, an average Rs 5-10 crore has become the expenditure norm for candidates (major parties) fighting for a Lok Sabha seat. However, these costs can vary greatly depending on a number of factors. For instance, if the contest takes place in a constituency in which political heavyweights are contesting, significantly more resources are likely to be spent.

Heightened expenditure was also recorded in cash rich states such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the money spent by individual candidates can sometimes reach, or even exceed, Rs 100 crores.
The increasing dominance of business in politics: With skyrocketing costs and most candidates/parties unable to arrange the sum on their own, they are increasingly relying on friends/private businesses to fund their political activities. The end result is this growing dependency on money has paved ways for influx of ‘interested
money’ into the democratic processes. Thus, the regionally dominant mining, coal or real estate barons and contractors have emerged as major funders of elections. Beyond funding selective candidates/parties, people with wealth have found it easy to secure
nominations from political parties or often contest as independent candidates. Respondents contented that this trend has dramatically

unbalanced the playing field as traditional politicians without comparable financial support are at a major disadvantage.
Social Media Spend: What has added to escalation in costs is the arrival of digital/social media requiring candidates to hire tech experts/buy out social media influences, create and maintain social media profiles, spend on digital political advertisements, etc.
Growing Salience of Vote Buying: Although vote-buying (cash distributed at the level of candidates and parties, mainly takes place in the run up to polling day) is a persistent feature of Indian elections in the past, the scale of vote-buying has increased at an unprecedented level. Nearly all political aspirants interviewed agreed that even if they are not in a position to distribute money for votes, the actions of rival candidates/parties force them to do so. Some of them confessed that while in earlier times they used to exchange small denominations among their core voters, now they distribute much bigger sums – Rs 2,000-3,000. [1] In richer southern states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, some of the political candidates shared that parties and/or candidate exchanged Rs 5,000-7,000 to each voter.
Sahoo and Ghosh conclude that the major implications of these factors mean women and young candidates facing structural and procedural challenges, Oligarchizing of Electoral Politics, Adverse impact on democratic integrity and Unregulated institutional design of political parties.
Sahoo and Ghosh recommend a robust regulation and enforcement of political finance regimes, plugging legal loopholes, Strengthening of disclosure requirements for political parties and individual candidates and stringent enforcement of regulation.

On more substantial terms, the country needs to reform and democratise functioning of political parties. Structurally, the leadership hierarchy of most parties in India are extremely top-down – some are ostensibly family run enterprises – and often intra-party elections for party posts are not conducted for years or are controlled by power wielders within the party. A similarly centralised ticket distribution procedure with limited transparency or laid down procedures for determining the eligibility of the chosen candidates are also common features. This paves the way for clandestine connections between power holders and vested interests within the party, to the detriment of less well connected or female and youth aspirants.

Sahoo and Ghosh make a strong case for public funding of political parties. Public subsidies or state funding for legitimate political activities and campaign expenses can help level the playing field.
When designed and executed well, public funding to political parties can help stem the influence of ‘interest money.’ Furthermore, public funding can support the emergence of smaller and newer political entrants.
We also need civic education and voter sensitisation. The growing culture of vote buying and open exchange of gifts, liquor and other material goods for votes has negative impacts for the legitimacy of representative democracy as it erodes the trust-based relationship between a voter and the aspirant and replaces it with a new ‘transactional’ one.
The situation needs both state and societal efforts to mitigate. ECI, police, federal and state level enforcement agencies need to intensify preventive measures as well as punishing violators. Voter sensitisation by civil society organisations, media and ECI should receive priority building on the successful approaches to improve voters’ participation in recent years, conclude Sahoo and Ghosh.