As India nears 1 bn electors, it seeks solutions to freebies, black money

Estimates of election related expenditure of political parties and candidates, and EC's seizures, reveal barely the tip of the total election spends of candidates and political parties

By the end of this month, India is set to have 990 million electors — people enrolled in the electoral roll — and on the cusp of reaching the “landmark” of 1 billion electors soon, according to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar. Speaking on Tuesday, Kumar pointed to the ever improving gender ratio of electoral rolls, and said there were 480 million women electors in the country today. 

The 18 Lok Sabha and nearly 435 Assembly polls, including that of states no longer in existence, that the Election Commission has conducted since 1951-52 tell a story of an electoral