New Delhi: Weeks before the Karnataka assembly elections, when the BJP held office in the state before losing it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a one-day visit to inaugurate the Shivamogga airport in the state on February 27, 2023. He made a campaign pitch to “vote for a double-engine government in future too”, reports Deccan Herald, in that trip. An RTI query, answered only three years later in January 2026, has revealed just that inauguration cost to the public: Rs 18.81 crore.

An additional Rs 14.35 crore make it a total of over Rs 33 crore on just that one day.

Expenses included “1,800 buses hired at a cost of Rs 4.11 crore to bring people from various places for Modi’s event. Over Rs 1.8 crore was spent for two heads of works: waterproof German structure truss pandal for the main stage dais and green room, model presentation stalls and flower decoration for the prime minister, the governor, the chief minister and others”, reports the newspaper.

Modi flew to Belagavi after the inauguration by a special airplane, and then took a helicopter before commencing a roadshow in the afternoon. Air travel expenses have not been accounted for, but the newspaper reports that another set of documents obtained by RTI revealed that Rs 14.35 crore were spent on this leg of the trip. This again included Rs 2.5 crore for bussing people to the spot.

The total expenditure, the RTI activist claims of the one-day trip, came to Rs 33.16 crore of public money.

The response obtained by information rights activist and author of a book on RTI and transparency, Manjunath Hirechowti of the Lanchamuktha Karnataka organisation, also showed that the public works department had exempted itself from the tendering process by invoking section 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act.

Manjunath is quoted by Deccan Herald as saying that “Public money is not a campaign resource. Development projects must not become platforms for political projection in the months leading up to elections. India needs a statutory pre-election expenditure control mechanism, as there is no financial restraint before the model code of conduct comes into force. Without reform, taxpayers will continue to bear the burden of politically timed extravagance.”

He had filed his RTI query in March 2023 but received a reply only in January this year after obtaining a favourable order from the state information commission.

The public works minister in office when the BJP was in power in the state, C.C. Patil, said on being questioned now that he could not remember the exact expenditure.

This is not the first time that the costs to the public of the PM’s visit, often coinciding with elections, have been reported. The Wire, in 2023 had analysed the cost to the nation of a perpetually campaigning prime minister, and the coincidence of official visits to election-bound states.

Earlier, the Indian Express had reported on Rs 56 crore being spent on a daylong visit of Modi on Yoga Day by civic bodies in Karnataka.

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