BS Number Wise: In Indian elections, the rich win the vote

Politicians own wealth that the people whose support they seek will take decades to earn

Politicians fighting elections in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa own wealth that the voters they are wooing probably won’t earn in a lifetime. Candidates who win elections in India are usually richer than their competitors are. It is a disparity troubling for equitable politics.

A median candidate in the five states has assets that would take the average voter more than three decades to earn, shows Business Standard’s analysis of data from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a Delhi-based research group, and numbers from the Reserve Bank of India.

A median