Prashant Bhushan: BJP will spend ₹90,000 crore in LS polls, democracy, elections becoming hostage to money

The Bharatiya Janata Party would be spending ₹90,000 crore in the 2019 general election, claimed noted Supreme Court lawyer and anti-graft activist Prashant Bhushan on Saturday.

"It is estimated that ₹1 lakh crore would be spent on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 90 per cent of it would be spent by the BJP," said Bhushan delivering a talk on 'Reclaiming the Republic', a manifesto released by socio-political body Swaraj Abhiyan.

Lamenting that democracy and elections were becoming a hostage to money, Bhushan told the gathering that the entire election system was dependent on money and there was no limit on spending by political parties.

"Drastic electoral reforms are urgently needed to bring in transparency in electoral funding. No country in the world has a non-transparent instrument like electoral bonds' we have in India where corporate and foreign entities can send money to any party funds secretly but legally," said Bhushan.

Cautioning the people against the habit of wanting to vote for the winning candidate, Bhushan said such a voting pattern was not good for democracy as it denied the best candidate from winning on merits.

"We do not get good people to represent us, as people vote for a winning candidate than the best candidate in the contest," said Bhushan.

Calling upon the people to exercise their vote with discretion in the ensuing parliamentary elections to save democracy, Bhushan said the country was in the danger of turning into a fascist state.

Elections to 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held in seven phases across the country from April 11 to May 19, with counting of votes on May 23.

"As India is in the danger of turning into a fascist state, citizens, civil society groups and people's movements should come together to save its democracy and civilization," said Bhushan.

The manifesto was prepared by noted citizens, including Justice A.P. Shah, Gopal Gandhi, Prabhat Patnaik, Yogendra Yadav and Harsh Mander.