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India’s Bitterly Fought Election Becomes the World’s Most Expensive

  • About $8.7 billion spent in 2019 election, study shows
  • Expenditure rose as candidates spent money to lure voters
Supporters dance and wave Bharatiya Janata Party flags while celebrating at the party's headquarters in New Delhi on May 23, 2019.

Supporters dance and wave Bharatiya Janata Party flags while celebrating at the party's headquarters in New Delhi on May 23, 2019.

Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg

Elections in the world’s biggest democracy have become the most expensive too.

Spending by political parties and candidates to woo 900 million voters in the just concluded polls cost them nearly 600 billion rupees ($8.7 billion), more than double of 2014 polls, according to the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies. The report, based on field studies, analysis and estimation, found that they spent 700 rupees per voter or nearly one billion rupees in each parliamentary constituency.