By Moa Jamir
In Nagaland, elections are not merely contested; they are often quite literally ‘fought.’The recent by-election to the 28 Koridang Assembly Constituency on April 9 drives the point home yet again.Beyond such flashpoints, electoral politics in the state continues to be shaped by deeply embedded village and regional alignments, tribal affiliations, and monetary influence, customarily accompanied by outright confrontation. Issues, barring the occasional invocation of religion, rarely take centre stage in the ballot.
Given this context, one must ask: is this democracy in its truest sense, or a localised variant struggling to uphold its own ideals? Focusing on just one dimension of the electoral process - the monetary factor, offers significant insight.
On paper, Nagaland presents an almost enviable picture. Official election expenditure records from the 2023 Assembly elections suggest a remarkably “low-cost” democratic exercise. As per an ‘Analysis of Election Expenditure Statements of MLAs’ for Nagaland Assembly Elections 2023 by the Association for Democratic Reforms, the average spending by winning candidates stood at Rs 8.87 lakh, barely 32% of the prescribed ceiling of Rs 28 lakh. In fact, 83% of MLAs declared expenses below half the legal limit. A few even reported spending as little as Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh, amounts that would struggle to sustain even a modest campaign elsewhere.
Further, a majority of candidates reported minimal expenditure on several key components of campaigning such electronic or print media advertisements, campaign workers, public meetings involving star campaigners. Nearly 98% declared no spending on virtual campaigns.The only category with near-universal spending was campaign vehicles, with 97% reporting expenditure indicating that physical mobilisation remained central.
If taken strictly at face value, elections in Nagaland appear not only affordable, but unusually restrained, almost minimalist in design. Campaigns, it would seem, run on limited resources and considerable efficiency.Yet, this official account sits uneasily alongside what has been documented outside it.
Independent estimates from earlier elections tell a different story altogether. YouthNet’s Post Election Watch Report (2018) estimated that total election expenditure in Nagaland crossed Rs Rs.1061,09,25000, rising steadily from around Rs 937 crore in 2013 and Rs 569 crore in 2008. The average cost per vote was placed between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000while highest average expenditure per household was pegged at Rs 75,000.Overall, the average spending per candidate, across 196 candidates, works out to a cool Rs 5.41 crore,while the highest spending candidate reportedly spent close to Rs 30 crore.
Placed side by side with figures reflected in official self-declarations, the contrast is difficult to miss. One version reflects a remarkably economical democracy while the other points to a far costlier reality.However, anecdotal accounts rarely speak of frugal affairs; if anything, they point to elections that are far more lavish and resource-intensive.
It is also possible that different methods of estimation yield different results. But the scale of divergence invites closer scrutiny.Adding to this is the absence of a comparable independent expenditure study for the 2023 elections. Whether this is by design or due to other reasons remains unclear, although, incidentally, one of the prominent members associated with the independent auditingorganisation contested the 2023 Assembly election, and won.
Focusing on money power alone does not capture the full complexity of elections in Nagaland. However, it provides a revealing lens. Between official declarations that suggest frugality and independent estimates that indicate otherwise, two parallel narratives continue to coexist.Reconciling them is not merely an academic exercise but central to understanding how elections are actually conducted, and how democracy is ultimately experienced on the ground in Nagaland.
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