Mumbai: Though all the contestants in an election file the return of expenses after any elections, such disclosures are a mere formality. It is common knowledge that even the votes are literally bought in a competitive market. Not one candidate files an expense sheet which shows an extra rupee spent over and above the limits set by the Election Commission. Often, they are lower. The close watch by the election office does not reflect any difference.
Most of the expenses escape the radar and much of the visible spending is accounted for by the political parties and not their candidates. It is quite likely that the elections to the Maharashtra Assembly now underway would be any different. In reality, it is likely to be the most expensive than any held so far, even after the inflation factored in. Their auditors manage to apportion the expenses to ensure the candidates are not in trouble.
It does promise to be the most expensive, even quite ludicrous, election yet. One indicator is the huge amounts of cash seized by the election machinery. It is close to Rs 200 crore already. This is higher than what was caught by the authorities in the previous Assembly elections. Obviously, this kind of cash is unaccounted – black or hot money – notwithstanding the claims that such money has disappeared due to demonetization.
The bundles of cash of high denomination are either transported to candidates by the party or well-wishers – or even the potential beneficiary of the winner’s patronage later – and could even be only tip of the iceberg. Here are two examples of how, even before the campaign started, the spending is high by the parties or on their behalf.
One, two candidates of the Mahayuti in Nashik region received the authorizations of their candidature from Mumbai by a chartered flight by the BJP on the last date for nominations and one of them beat the deadline by barely three-four minutes. Two, a candidate in Vidarbha who refused to end his rebellion was summoned to Mumbai by hiring a special aircraft.
Midway between the last date for nominations and for withdrawal, all activity seems to have shifted to the backrooms, with some tiny bits leaking to the media. The main concern is to get the rebels out of the way, and they are not yielding ground easily. Except for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), all other parties have rebels, the Congress being the most plagued.
To an outsider, it is as if a pause button has been hit, and there is calm outside except for the newspaper headlines. This, however, is the time when candidates get their gameplans firmed out, pick the able workers, and plan the logistics that will come into play the moment the final list of candidates is known on November 3. That includes sourcing money, part of which would be the nearly Rs 200 crore seized.
The time was spent in finding candidates to poach or willingly cross over, evaluating his or her ability to win vis-à-vis the party’s own likely candidates, smoothening the ruffled feathers when objections are raised because an “outsider” was preferred. This, in the complex metrics used, has to be considered against the likely rival candidate.
Because more time was spent on getting the seat shares right by each of the two rival fronts, the Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi, the actual fight on the ground is yet to get going. The plan on how the two sides would manage their joint campaigns is unclear yet except that the MVA has announced the campaign would start on November 6 in Mumbai with leading lights of I.N.D.I.A present. Mahayuti is silent so far.
For the 288 seats, as many as 7,994 candidates, including rebels and independents had their papers in order and only 921 did not meet the set norms and were invalidated. Many would remain in fray, as self-nominated individuals even after the window for withdrawals is closed. In a democracy none can be deprived of an opportunity to contest but many lack the resources and support to make an impact. Many only lengthen the ballot.
This can be found in Nanded’s constituency, Bhokar, where, on the last day of nominations, as many as 167 nominations were filed. This may whittle down when the withdrawals happen but the fact is that the number of electronic voting machines (EVMs) deployed in each polling station may be unusually high. The claimants in each seat would, of course, vary.
| 
