How crorepatis are edging others out of election race
India Today
Candidates who won in 2019 Lok Sabha polls are worth about Rs 112 billion combined, while candidates who won in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 hold around Rs 23 billion in assets.
The entry into the elite club of elected representatives has never been easy. The last twenty years' data shows that with the menacing rise in the influence of money power, this has gotten only tougher.
The recent election data show that even as parties and their patrons project themselves as "gareebon ka meseeha" (the messiah of the poor), there is a marked preference for nominating rich candidates to contest in elections. In other words, while politicians hold forth on the emergence of two Indias - rich & poor- there is little follow-up action to bridge the widening wealth gap in selecting candidates in elections.
The 2019 Lok Sabha winner candidates are worth more than about Rs.112 billion combined, while elected candidates of the Uttar Pradesh assembly in 2017 hold around Rs. 23 billion in total.
On average, a winner of the last Lok Sabha election was worth about Rs. 21 crores, while a sitting MLA of U.P. in the 2017 election was worth about Rs. 6 crores. This figure arrived after the analysis of the documents of 539 Members of Parliament (out of 542), and 396 (out of 403) UP's sitting Members of Legislative Assembly.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, the figures of "crorepati" candidates are based on their affidavits submitted to the Election Commission. A review of declared assets of candidates shows there has been a jump from just 11 per cent crorepati candidates in 2004, to 29 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. What is even more disconcerting is that wealthy candidates are often more likely to win elections.
While 29 per cent of all candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections had declared assets of Rs. 1 crore or more, the winners' list had 88 per cent crorepatis.
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