The City’s rich, prospective corporators appear to have garnered a good proportion of tickets that both the Congress, the BJP and the Janata Dal (S) distributed in the course of the past week, a random analysis of their fortunes made as part of required financial and assets disclosures indicates.
A significant point that emerged from the analysis, which involved each estimating each would-be corporator’s net worth was that not only did their returns reflect that some of them are crorepatis but the bulk of their assets was in real estate.
Although electoral rules stipulate that a candidate can spend up to Rs 5 lakh for the constituency he will contest, a more realistic figure is that a majority of the candidates who secured nomination have worked out a budget of around Rs 1.50 to Rs 2 crore as the expenditure they are likely to incur during the polls. The total amount that all the candidates would end up spending is around Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore. Although each ward has a voting population of approximately 30,000, the candidates with money power will end up spending a lot more than the Rs 5 lakh ceiling.
“One should first prove one’s ability to spend to secure a ticket to contest the elections. Only when the respective party leadership is convinced that an aspirant is capable of spending such a huge sum that his/her name is shortlisted for ticket nomination. A secondary factor is influence and political and social work experience. Almost all parties have stopped extending financial support to candidates to fight the elections,” sources pointed out.
A former Bangalore mayor said that when he contested a decade ago, he spent Rs 70,000 of which Rs 5,000 was provided by his party. “This time I am not contesting because I can’t afford to. I will have to sell my house to conduct the campaign. I don’t want to take that risk”, he said. For more information please click here
