Why political corruption starts with voter corruption

It is an invariable question that any well-meaning person who wants to join politics is asked: “Where are you going to get the money from?” The implication is not so much about fund-raising for organising meetings, getting the word out there and other run-of-the-mill political operations. The implied question is: How will one pay off the voter the night before the elections?

Largol has a collection of news reports on voter corruption in India. Here are some rates per vote according to that collection of news articles:

• Rs 1,000-1,500/vote in Dakoha Village in Punjab for the national elections in 2014
• Rs 1,000-2,000/vote in Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• Rs 500-5,000/vote in Thirumangalam, Tamil Nadu

Given this data of cash for votes, how much would a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) need to spend to win elections? An MLA election typically has about 1.5 lakh voters. If we assume that the MLA can distribute cash to about a third of voters in India, it means an MLA would need to bribe about 50,000 voters. So, if we assumed the low- to mid-end of the rate/vote estimate to be Rs 500-1,000 per vote, an aspiring MLA would need to spend about Rs 2.5–5 crore.

This amount is on top of making cash payments to local party workers, officials (for example, sarpanchs), organising meetings and other costs.

If we assume that an MLA spends about Rs 5 crore per election and he wins that election, the next question is: How will he get a return on his investment? The MLA could target to make a return of at least Rs 20 crore over the next five years: Rs 5 crore to cover the cost of winning the current election and another Rs 5 crore for the next election (which he may lose), and another Rs 10 crore for ongoing organisational expenses and profit. If the target is Rs 20 crore to make a return on investment, then where is that money going to come from?

This Rs 20 crore will come as tax on the voter in terms of corruption in transferring and posting of officials, bribes from contractors and other deals. Let’s take an example of the most common way for politicians to make money, that is, through transferring police officers. When the police officer pays of the local MLA for a choice posting, guess where he is going to make his money? Try filing a police complaint at your local police station and getting justice without paying of the cop. After all, the cops also need to make a return on their investments.

So, the next time we talk about political corruption, we should also talk about the integrated issue of voter corruption.

This is the third of four articles around voter opinion and the ways it influences politicians, corruption & government systems. Here are the first and second articles.