Business

Election season in India comes with freebies

By Ashok Sharma
Published February 12, 2014 9:06am ET
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Election season in India comes with freebies
In this Feb. 8, 2014 photo, Indian people walk past a Congress party hoarding displaying portrait of their vice president Rahul Gandhi, right, and party symbol in old quarters of New Delhi, India. Election season in India always comes with heaps of promises, as political parties try to woo voters with everything from subsidized fuel and electricity to free laptops, spice grinders, even goats and cows. But there are growing concerns that freebies will hurt the country's sputtering economy. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal) | Tsering Topgyal

NEW DELHI (AP) — Just before village council elections, Southern Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha went all out to gain favor with rural voters. Schoolgirls received laptops. Farm workers got cows and goats. Homemakers were given spice grinders and fans.

The price tag for the giveaway, which started in 2011 and continues today: 20 billion rupees ($322 million) in a state of about 70 million people.

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