Law Kumar Mishra
Now that the Election Commission of India has announced the Bihar assembly elections schedule, some stories of funding by the political parties have become relevant.
When I was posted at Jaipur,a former home minister of Gujarat ,Prabodh Rawal ,who had been president of Gujarat Congress Committee,was party election in_ charge for Rajasthan assembly elections in 1993
He was staying in Khasa Kothi ,the VIP guest house along with AICC secretary,Rajubhai Parmar.
Since we knew both of them from my posting in Ahmedabad for news gathering, I met him daily over breakfast.
One morning, I found two six footer policemen from Haryana standing guard at the door of Prabodh bhai’s room.
I was told Bhajan Lal had sent two big steel boxes with currency notes for distribution among the party candidates. After 10 am candidates or their nominees started reaching Khasa Kothi It was the duty of Rajubhai Parmar to hand over the bundles of notes to them after collecting the telegrams sent to them from the party office. Amount differed between candidates and their constituencies.
Party leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, Priyaranjan Das Munshi, Sudhakar Reddy were also present during the money distribution. They were staying in five star hotels in the pink city and their meetings were held in farm house of Harideo Joshi on Ajmer Road.
Candidates or their representatives came from far off places, like Sri Ganganagar, Suratgarh, Sawai Madhopur. The telegrams were the only identity card for the money recipients.
At Bhubaneswar, bungalow of Ms Nandani Satpathi in unit VI was the treasury of the Congress candidates. She was favourite of Mrs Indira Gandhi. She showed me two big sized steel almirahs and said during election time, both were full of currency notes. S Nijalingappa had sent funds after collections from top industrialists and authorised her to disburse among the party candidates contesting assembly elections in Orissa. The candidates were handed over their share in her presence after signing on the register, Care was taken to ensure ,not even one rupee was pulled out from the bundle.
In Bihar, money distribution was decentralised. In different taxis,packets were sent through taxis over night.There were complaints from the candidates receiving funds with Cuts.
Since 2010, the official spending limit for Lok Sabha candidates has more than doubled. In 2011, the cap was raised to Rs 40 lakh in big states and Rs 22 lakh in smaller ones. Ahead of the 2014 elections, it jumped to Rs 70 lakh (Rs 54 lakh for smaller states), followed by a 10 per cent increase in 2020. In 2022, the Election Commission revised the ceiling again to Rs 95 lakh for most states and Rs 75 lakh for smaller ones — the limit that applied in the 2024 polls. Overall, that’s an increase of Rs 55 lakh in big states and Rs 53 lakh in smaller states since 2011, roughly 2.4 to 3.4 times higher than before.
(The author is a senior Patna-based journalist and has worked with Times of India in different states)
