AHMEDABAD: This year, Gujarat’s taxpayers will spend Rs 15.19 crore for electing each MP. Once elected, these parliamentarians are expected to spend Rs 25 crore on local area development. Since the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Election Commission of India’s expenditure in organizing polling in 26 Gujarat seats has increased more than 3.5 times.There has, however, been no proportional rise in voting percentages.Dr S Murali Krishna, the chief electoral officer of Gujarat, said, “Expenditure for conducting elections should not be correlated with the percentage of voting.” He said that after the 2009 pay revision, costs have increased considerably. He said costs of hiring vehicles, providing food, and of miscellaneous requirements have shot up.“The number of polling booths have increased. Moreover, there were no micro-observers earlier,” Krishna said. “Live webcasting from sensitive booths and webcasting from more than five thousand booths have also caused a rise in election management costs,” he added.

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