MPs 27 times wealthier than an average urban household
The Hindu
2024 elections saw wealthy candidates dominating, with median assets of winners at ₹7.4 crore, reflecting elite representation in politics.
The 2024 general elections might have substantially changed the composition of the Lok Sabha in terms of party strengths, leading to a coalition government. However, candidates who thrived – even in the 2019 elections – were inevitably rich across most parties with assets equivalent to that of the top 10% of the urban households of the country.
The median asset value of winning candidates in the 2024 elections was ₹7.4 crore and close to 92% of the winners had assets of ₹1 crore or more, while 75% of them had assets of ₹3 crore or more. The median asset value of runner-up candidates in 2024 was ₹6.25 crore, with close to 88% of them having assets worth ₹1 crore or more, and 68% with assets worth ₹3 crore or more.
The numbers were similar in 2019. The median asset of a winning candidate was ₹4.8 crores, with close to 95% of the winners having assets of ₹1 crore or more, and 88% of them worth assets of ₹3 crore or more.
The median asset value of the candidates who were runners-up in the 2019 elections was ₹5.4 crore with close to 85% of them having assets worth ₹1 crore or more, and 63% had assets worth ₹3 crore or more (Chart 1).
Chart 1 | The chart shows the median assets of winners and runners-up in 2019 and 2024.
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That candidates who were winners or runners-up had assets worth more than ₹1 crore was possibly due to parties fielding only rich candidates. The median assets of candidates of the top 27 parties each in 2024 was at least ₹1 crore. For the two major national parties, the BJP and the Congress, the values were ₹7.6 crore and ₹5.4 crore respectively (Chart 2).
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