Data submitted to the Election Commission of India raised serious questions about the future of democracy in the country, come elections. The gap in election expenditure between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) has widened sharply over the past decade if data submitted to the ECI is anything to go by.

The gap between the two rival political outfits show no sign of reducing. The Congress poll expenditure is falling far short of the same of saffron brigade for three consecutive Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP reported election related expenditure of about Rs 925 crores while the Congress expenditure in election was in the region of Rs 582 crores. This was in the election held in the 2014-15 financial year .

The BJP spending shot up to Rs 1,352 crores and this figure for the Congress was Rs 864 crores in the poll cycle in 2019-20, five years later. The gap existed but it was within comfortable margins.

A decisive shift in balance followed 2024-25, when the BJP spent Rs 3,355 crores. The poll expenditure of Congress was about Rs 896 crores indicating it's fund raisers have not made much progress from the pile they had accumulated five years ago.

Going by the last filing of expenses submitted to the ECI, the ruling party spent four times as much as its principal national rival. The significance of this shift lies beyond figures. Elections today are a continuing process. It involves extensive advertising, high frequency touring, electronic media outreach, rapid response communication teams and logistical mobilisation.

All these activities demand sustained financial capacity. Episodic fund raising appears to be a knee jerk reaction to present day poll fund raising and it has little place in the existing scheme of things.

Deep pockets of a political outfit do not guarantee electoral success. Congress's poll debacle in 1977 and BJP-led NDA coalition's defeat in 2004 elections are cases in point. Well funded campaigns have met with reverse off and on. Local leaders being out of sync with voters, poor governance or social coalitions shifting preference led to poll expenses coming to nought. Voters, ultimately cannot be bought. Yet financial clout can shape elections long be before ballots are cast.

The determinants of poll outcome in this case are who dominates visibility, whose messaging saturates media platforms, who can absorb mistakes without lasting damage. Money widens margin of recovery even if it cannot be a sure shot formula of victory.

These poll expenditures are formally declared and publicly available. The issue is not legality. Democratic concern lies at the point when disparities become structural whether transparency is sufficient by itself. One political party can campaign nationally at scale while it's rival has to ration outreach. It makes elections contests of amplification. Ideally it ought to be a contest of persuasion.

Such imbalances have long term implications. Organisational wealth upstage ideological clarity is not s sign of a healthy democracy. Smaller political parties will struggle in this scenario. Internal party renewal becomes harder without access to resources.

India's democracy remains vibrant and contested. But capacity varies sharply among competitors. If the trend continues it will result in quiet narrowing of democratic space. Elections are not contests to outspend opponents. One has to take the danger of financial power becoming too dominant. Its fallout is keeping the electoral arena open but the balance remains tilted. (IPA Service)