The 2024 general elections might have substantially changed the composition of the Lok Sabha in terms of party strengths, leading to a coalition government. However, candidates who thrived – even in the 2019 elections – were inevitably rich across most parties with assets equivalent to that of the top 10% of the urban households of the country.
The median asset value of winning candidates in the 2024 elections was ₹7.4 crore and close to 92% of the winners had assets of ₹1 crore or more, while 75% of them had assets of ₹3 crore or more. The median asset value of runner-up candidates in 2024 was ₹6.25 crore, with close to 88% of them having assets worth ₹1 crore or more, and 68% with assets worth ₹3 crore or more.
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The numbers were similar in 2019. The median asset of a winning candidate was ₹4.8 crores, with close to 95% of the winners having assets of ₹1 crore or more, and 88% of them worth assets of ₹3 crore or more.
The median asset value of the candidates who were runners-up in the 2019 elections was ₹5.4 crore with close to 85% of them having assets worth ₹1 crore or more, and 63% had assets worth ₹3 crore or more (Chart 1).
Chart 1 | The chart shows the median assets of winners and runners-up in 2019 and 2024.
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That candidates who were winners or runners-up had assets worth more than ₹1 crore was possibly due to parties fielding only rich candidates. The median assets of candidates of the top 27 parties each in 2024 was at least ₹1 crore. For the two major national parties, the BJP and the Congress, the values were ₹7.6 crore and ₹5.4 crore respectively (Chart 2).
Chart 2 | The chart shows the median assets of candidates of the major political parties in 2024.
We use “median values” to filter out outliers; if we used “averages”, the outliers — extremely rich candidates’ wealth — would skew calculations. For example, Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of the Telugu Desam Party has declared assets worth ₹5,706 crore. If averages, instead of median values of assets of winners in 2024 were taken into account, the figure would shoot up to ₹46 crore, in comparison to a median of ₹7.4 crore.
That candidates are constituted from the elite segments of Indian society, in terms of wealth, is substantiated by a comparison of their assets with that of Indian households.
Significant gap
The All India Debt & Investment Survey- 2019 estimated that the average value of assets in an urban household was ₹27.1 lakh and the corresponding figure for a rural household was ₹15.9 lakh. These are “averaged” out numbers, meaning they could have been calculated as high because of rich outliers. Even then, the median assets of a winning candidate in 2024 was 27 times more than the average asset of an urban household, and that for a runner-up candidate was 23.1 times more.
The average asset of the wealthiest 10% households in urban areas was ₹1.5 crore. This number (depicted in Chart 3) suggests that only someone from the elite, in terms of wealth, can meaningfully contest general elections in India which reflects, to a large extent, the cost of election campaigning and financing.
Chart 3 | The chart shows the average value of household assets for different decile classes for rural and urban areas in 2019 (in ₹ 1000s).
However, there were exceptions: Jyotirmay Singh Mahato (of the BJP) who won from Purulia in West Bengal had assets worth ₹5.95 lakh, Mitali Bag (of the Trinamool Congress) from Arambag – ₹7.8 lakh and Priya Saroj (of the Samajwadi Party) from Machchilishahar in Uttar Pradesh – ₹11.25 lakh.
In terms of parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (₹47 lakh), the Peoples Democratic Party (₹87 lakh) and the CPI(M) (₹1 crore) fielded candidates with the lowest average assets. Only the CPI(M) among them had winning candidates (four).
Source: Election Commission of India, Association for Democratic Reforms and the All India debt & Investment Survey
