Lok Sabha polls: Richer candidates win, but re-elections a different story

There could be vast differences among Indian voters in their political choices, but all would agree on one thing: money wins elections. Apart from money spent by the candidate and the party, the value of assets of the candidate is another important indicator of the potential to spend money, influence voters directly or indirectly. 

Analysis of the assets data from Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that the average assets of a winner of the 2014 LS election was more than the average assets of a candidate: more the money you have, more the chances of winning. But interestingly, it does not hold true for winner who are re-elected winners. The average assets of a re-elected Member of Parliament (MP) were not necessarily more than the average assets of a MP elected for the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. 

Source: Association for Democratic Reforms; Note: Re-elected MPs for the current Lok Sabha includes by-elections till 2018. Includes movable and immovable assets NCP: Nationalist Congress Party, SAD: Shiromani Akali Dal, BJD: Biju Janata Dal, TDP: Te

While for some parties, re-elected MPs were richer than all elected MPs, they were relatively less wealthy than an average elected MP (which includes re-elected ones). So, it could be said that the 2014 polls, which was termed as a wave election, more money did not necessarily mean re-election. Rather, average assets of a typical winner were more than average assets of a second-time winner, for half of the major parties. 

Regional party candidates and winners had higher average value of assets. 

Maharashtra-basedNCP, Punjab’s SAD were the two key parties whose re-elected MPs were massively richer than the elected MPs. 

For Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool Congress and AIADMK, the assets of re-elected MPs was marginally lower or higher than average elected MP. 

Re-elected MPs from Congress and Telugu Desam Party were less wealthier than average MP elected on their party ticket.