BMC Elections 2012: The cost of BMC polls: Rs500cr!

Published: Friday, Jan 6, 2012, 8:45 IST
By Shubhangi Khapre | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

The air in Mumbai is abuzz with the battle for the municipal corporation. With the civic polls scheduled for February 16, political parties are busy devising strategies and roping in star campaigners to lure voters and eventually rule the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Conservative estimates by political managers of the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) suggest that the battle for 227 seats will be a whopping Rs500-crore affair.

The state’s chief election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan said as per laid norms, candidates contesting the civic polls can spend Rs1.5 lakh each. She added that the amount has been increased to Rs5 lakh taking into account the inflation in the past five years. However, the parties are amused with the ceiling and have termed it impractical.

They openly admit that it is impossible for them to adhere to the limit set by the state election commission. Leaders who control the purse strings of major parties admitted that the average funds required per candidate is Rs1 crore.

With the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance sure to contest all 227 seats and the Congress and NCP likely to do the same (if they form an alliance), there would be 454 serious candidates in the fray. At Rs1 crore per candidate, the poll budget touches Rs454 crore without even considering other players.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, too, has threatened to field 227 candidates. However, even if it concentrates only on its strongholds and fields 15-25 candidates it will still spend crores because of its aggressive style of campaigning. Lesser known players such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have smaller stakes but high budgets.

In a tactical move, mainstream parties and their alliances often deploy the services of extras to make a dent into each other’s vote bank. Such candidates spend at least Rs25-30 lakh each.

Estimates show there are at least 125 such candidates in the fray. “Earlier, we would pacify our supporters with a plate of bhel puri or vada pav. Today, they demand a sumptuous lunch and dinner with chicken/mutton biryani and drinks. The changing lifestyle of our leaders and workers has resulted in the poll expenditure shooting up drastically. Also, the cars used during our campaign trails are top models complete with air-condition,” said a sitting corporator on condition of anonymity.

A sitting corporator from the Congress concurs. “We have to reach out to maximum people during the 12 days of campaigning. The amount spent on petrol and diesel itself is Rs25-30 lakh. We also have to manage unlimited number of rallies and meetings. The cost of publicity material for each ward is Rs20 lakh,” he said. “We also seek help from star campaigners/ central ministers/ state ministers who travel only by helicopters. A private plane costs Rs75,000 per hour.”

Senior BJP leader Madhav Bhandari said the election commission’s ceiling is aimed at restricting excessive expenditure during the polls. “The purpose is good, but political parties have to provide additional funds to ensure an effective campaign aimed at luring voters spread across different wards,” he said.

“Mumbai is the country’s financial capital and parties have to come up with various techniques to reach out to voters. The aggressive campaign comes at a price. Almost 50% of the funds are used on transportation and the remaining on publicity material and rallies,” a senior cabinet minister from the NCP told DNA.

Sources in the election commission told DNA that the poll budgets often run into crores and exceed the prescribed limit for individual candidates. This is because the funds released for campaigning under the party banner are not accounted for in the expenditure of a candidate. “A candidate has to provide details of his expenditure which should not exceed Rs5 lakh. But he is not bound to explain the whopping expenditure incurred by his party on star campaigners,” said an election commission official.

With corruption being the buzzword in the country at present, NCP chief Sharad Pawar has asked his ministers and party officials to cut down on their expenditure for the polls. “We have been bluntly told to cut down cost on hiring private planes for our rallies,” said a senior NCP minister.