Every candidate in an Indian election works to a legal ceiling on what they may spend. The limits are set under Rule 90 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, and were last raised by notification in January 2022.
The current ceilings
| Election | Most States | Smaller States and UTs |
|---|---|---|
| Lok Sabha | ₹95 lakh | ₹75 lakh |
| Legislative Assembly | ₹40 lakh | ₹28 lakh |
The lower slab covers Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim, and most Union Territories. Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir take the higher figure.
For comparison, the Lok Sabha ceiling was ₹70 lakh under the 2014 notification. The Commission’s review cited the growth in the electorate from about 834 million in 2014 to about 936 million in 2021, inflation, and the shift toward digital campaigning.
The limit is per candidate, not per party
This is the point that surprises people, and it is the reason the ceilings look low against what a national campaign visibly costs.
There is no ceiling on what a political party may spend. A party can run national advertising, hire aircraft and hold rallies without any statutory cap. Only the individual candidate’s constituency spending is limited.
Party expenditure on general propaganda is not charged to the candidate. Spending that promotes a named candidate in their constituency generally is. The boundary between the two is where most of the argument about election finance actually happens.
What counts, and from when
The accounting window runs from the date of nomination to the date the result is declared. Spending before nomination falls outside it, which is one reason campaigning often begins long before papers are filed.
Within the window, counted items include public meetings and rallies, posters, banners and hoardings, vehicles and fuel, campaign workers, advertising in print, broadcast and online, and the candidate’s own travel.
The Election Commission publishes standard rates for common items, so a candidate cannot declare a rally at an implausibly low figure.
How it is policed
- Every candidate must open a separate bank account for election expenditure and route spending through it.
- A register of day-to-day expenses is maintained and produced for inspection during the campaign.
- Expenditure Observers are deployed to constituencies.
- A full account must be lodged with the District Election Officer within 30 days of the result.
Failing to lodge the account, or lodging a false one, can lead to disqualification for up to three years. That penalty attaches to the filing failure, which in practice is easier to establish than proving a ceiling was breached.
Reading a candidate’s numbers
Filed accounts are public, alongside the Form 26 affidavit submitted with the nomination. Between them they are the most useful public record of who is funding a campaign and what it cost.
Treat declared totals as a floor rather than a measure of a campaign’s real scale, given the party-spending gap above.
Limits are revised periodically. Confirm the figure in force for your election at the Election Commission’s expenditure monitoring pages.
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