Why independents find it so tough to get elected
Besides small campaign budgets, the tax exemption that big party candidates enjoy are unavailable to them
The stranglehold of political parties on the electoral and political system continues to increase with time. The anti-defection law, passed in 1985, formalised the control of political parties even on Parliament. Despite a large number of candidates on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), the candidates with a realistic chance of getting elected are two or three, having got tickets from major political parties. Effectively, the choice of a voter is constrained by the choices made by a set of political parties. To sum up, this is what makes it almost impossible for independents to get elected.
The first four elections to the Lok Sabha saw a reasonable number of independents getting elected: 37 in 1951; 42 in 1957; 28 in 1962; and 43 in 1967.
After that it has gone down to single digits. Only five independent candidates were elected in 2004. The number went up to nine in 2009 but dropped again to a dismal three in 2014. The situation in the assemblies is not too different. During the last three assembly elections, as many as 23 of 29 states showed a declining trend in electing independent candidates. The trend in the remaining six is mixed.
What will the elimination of independents and domination by candidates of political parties lead to? Is it good for democracy? The response to these questions is, “It can be good for democracy, provided certain conditions are met.” These conditions were specified by the Law Commission of India in 1999 in their 170th report: “( t must be said that if democracy and accountability constitute the core of our constitutional system, the same concepts must also apply to and bind the political parties which are integral to parliamentary democracy…a political party which does not respect democratic principles in its internal working cannot be expected to respect those princi-
I)
fulfils my pending requests. One day, my viewpoint saw a shift. I felt grateful and began expressing it in a way I hadn’t before.
I gave some biscuits to the guy who collects garbage, as a token of gratitude. Instead of eating them then and there, he preserved it as something precious. I repeated gestures like this with other helpers. I observed my gardener working outdoors in the heat, and offered him a cold glass of sherbet, and did the same for the plumber or electrician. ples in the governance of the country. It cannot be dictatorship internally and democratic in its functioning outside.”
Why it is so difficult for independents to get elected? The key lies in political and electoral financing. There are two major strands to this argument. First, while there is a limit on expenditure that an individual candidate can incur on her/his election, there is none on the amount that a political party can. This obviously puts independent candidates, who had no party to bankroll their election, at a huge disadvantage.
The second strand pertains to the collection of money and is two-pronged. First is tax exemption.
The Income Tax Act 1961, and amended in 1978 with the addition of Section 13A, grants 100% exemption from income tax to political parties. It also clarifies that for the purposes of this section, ‘political party’ means a political party registered under the Representation of People Act. So, the tax exemption that a party’s candidate enjoys becomes indirectly unavailable to independent candidates.
Funding of political parties remains by and large a mysterious affair, but two recent decisions taken by governments are illustrative. In 2013, the UPA-2 introduced an Electoral Trusts Scheme. It said, “( n electoral trust shall be required to distribute the distributable contributions received in a financial year… to the eligible political parties ….”
The independent candidates are not eligible to get money from electoral trusts. But, incidentally, the Delhi High Court has held both the BJP and the Congress guilty of accepting money from ‘foreign sources’, thus violating the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
Interestingly, the ruling NDA government has been trying to get both the parties, the BJP and Congress, off the hook by attempting to amend the FCRA repeatedly, which in essence exempts them from any liability for their retrospective fund collection. Their latest attempt was to amend a law that was dead for eight years. In January, the National Democratic Alliance notified ‘electoral bonds, which bypasses the independents as well.
These bonds were introduced in the budget speech by the finance minister. But on the same day, he said these bonds will be bearer in character to keep the donor anonymous. The only thing such steps would result in is the lack of transparency. Independents will increasingly find it difficult to fight that battle.
A)
THE FIRST FOUR LOK SABHA ELECTIONS SAW A REASONABLE NUMBER OF INDEPENDENTS GETTING ELECTED: 37 IN 1951; 42 IN 1957; 28 IN 1962; AND 43 IN 1967. AFTER THAT IT HAS GONE DOWN TO SINGLE DIGITS
I started buying extra supplies to enjoy the happiness of sharing. These little acts of giving changed my attitude. I realised that they make me happy, enrich my life, instil humility in me. I feel blessed. I believe that God has his own ways of answering our prayers; and he has answered mine.