By IANS
New Delhi : Choosing the country's president once used to be the cheapest election process – requiring just some ballot papers and a few officials to conduct the poll. But with the hype created over this year's election and the political confusion, it is heading to be an expensive affair.
According to officials in the Election Commission of India, which conducts the presidential elections too, the panel does not keep track of the expenses involved in it.
"It's a very nominal amount – maybe less than Rs.200,000 – and it is borne by the central government," a senior election commission official, who did not want to be identified, told IANS. "It will be accounted under expenses of the ministry of law," he added.
The official said the security deposit paid by the candidates – each presidential candidate has to deposit Rs.15,000 to contest the presidential poll – also goes to the law ministry accounts.
Apart from ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-Left-Bahujan Samaj Party combine candidate Pratibha Patil and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) supported Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, more than a dozen independents too have filed nominations.
But this year's election appears to be different. The numerous discussions among the UPA partners and those among the eight-party regional United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) allies to choose their candidates, involving flight travels and hotel stays, has made it quite an expensive affair.
Although the UNPA partners, who met at Hyderabad, then Chennai and in Delhi, proposed President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's name for a second tenure, he turned it down.
Now, both Patil and Shekhawat will be visiting all the state capitals to drum up support for their candidacy – adding to the expense of the respective parties. While Patil, accompanied by senior Congress leader Jayanti Natarajan as her spokesperson, will begin her journey July 1 from Chennai, Shekhawat's tour programme has not been finalised.
During the filing of their nominations, a battery of leaders, including chief ministers, were present on the occasion. Patil filed her nomination papers Saturday, while Shekhawat did so Monday.