In a democracy, when the politicians thrive but the people don’t, what the system needs is not reform but rescue
When the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, it rode a wave of discontent fueled by corruption scandals, inflation and unemployment. Narendra Modi promised a new era, one built on Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (“Together with All, Development for All”). The promise was of governance, development and an end to “elite culture.”
A decade later, the record shows a more complex reality in which the slogan seems to have benefited the political class more than the people.
The Association for Democratic Reforms has released data showing that 93% of members elected in 2024 to the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, are millionaires, each of whose millions of rupees in assets total more than $120,000 in US dollars.
India’s democracy is rapidly tilting toward rule by the ultra-wealthy, plutocracy in the making. Leading this trend is the very party that claims to end the elite culture.
A democracy for the privileged
In the general election of 2024, 34 (14%) of the 240 candidates who emerged victorious from the ruling BJP declared assets equivalent to $6 million or more, 130 (54%) claimed wealth between $120,000 to $1.2 million, while another 63 (26%) reported assets between $1.2 million and $6 million. The assets of just 13 BJP winners (5%) were under $120,000 USD.
In the main opposition Congress Party, 93% of the 99 elected members are also millionaires. Among other parties with more than 20 seats, about 90% of winners fall in the millionaire category as well.
In 2024, winning BJP members reported an average wealth of nearly about $6 million compared with $2.8 million for Congress members.
In terms of individual wealth growth, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya saw his assets rise from about $16,000 in 2019 to about $490,000 in 2024, a roughly 30-fold increase. Similarly, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reported an almost 100-fold rise over 20 years. The surge in wealth has not been limited to BJP members alone but has also extended to their immediate family members.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s son, Nikhil Gadkari, saw his company CIAN Agro Industries & Infrastructure Ltd expand into ethanol production in 2024, with revenue soaring from about $210,000 in the quarter ending June 2024 to $61.5 million in one year. Its stock price also jumped from $0.53 to $36.5 by October 2025.
Similarly, Jay Shah, son of Home Minister Amit Shah, closest confidant of Modi, witnessed explosive growth in his firm Kusum Polyplast Pvt. Ltd. In the fiscal year ending March 2024. The company net worth increased by approximately 141.5%. The company’s net worth has not released its FY 2025 financials. Over the past decade, the wealth of political leaders and their families has grown far faster than the national average.
A recent report shows that MPs elected in India’s 2024 elections are 27 times wealthier than the average urban household with average assets of $900,000 versus $33,000 for ordinary citizens.
This disparity becomes even more pronounced when compared wit- rural India, where most of the population still resides. A prime example is Bihar, one of the country’s poorest and less industrialized states ruled by the BJP–JDU alliance.
Bihar’s per capita income is just $650/year, among India’s lowest. Yet, an ADR report shows 80% of Bihar’s 241 Members of Legislative Assembly ( MLAs) are millionaires, with average assets of $560,000 in USD. Even in such a poor state, BJP leaders’ assets grew 47-54% over the past decade.
According to recent data, Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary’s assets now stand at $1.33 million, former CM Renu Devi at $843,000 and Health Minister Mangal Pandey at $282,000.
Despite Bihar’s 12.8% growth in 2023–24, average citizens earn only a tiny fraction ($650 annually) of what elected leaders are accumulating in personal wealth.
This demonstrates a new political culture that the BJP has established, which puts wealth accumulation over public welfare.
When politics becomes a portfolio
In the early decades after Independence, India’s politics was defined by ideological commitment and personal austerity with leaders like Gandhi and Shastri valuing success by service, not assets. When wealth becomes the price of entry into politics, democracy ceases to be a level playing field. The socialist Nehruvian state feared money power. But the current BJP embraces and amplifies the trend.
Today political parties favor self-financing candidates, replacing grassroots workers. Data from the ADR shows candidates with assets over $120,000 have a 28 times higher chance of winning than poorer candidates.
Today India faces a democratic paradox: a poor electorate governed by wealthy representatives. With a projected expenditure of $160 billion, the 2024 parliamentary elections were the most costly in India’s history, second only to the US. The average Indian voter can’t afford a single parliamentary campaign, which costs between $600,000 and $1.2 million.
The result is a self-perpetuating cycle: money wins elections, and elections multiply money. Once in power, wealth is guaranteed to move upward through influence over contracts and policies, access to corporate donations, and discretionary funding. Politics has become not a tool for public service but wealth accumulation. The money–muscle–vote cycle sidelines the poor, money buys visibility, visibility wins votes, and votes buy more money.
But a true democracy is measured not by the wealth of its leaders, but by how fairly they represent the poor. India’s founders envisioned a democracy of equals. Today, it risks becoming a democracy of investors or privileged.
