Himachal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pushpender Rajpoot on Saturday convened a meeting of political parties of the state regarding monitoring of expenditure on election for the November 8 Assembly Election in the State.
Rajpoot told the representatives of various political parties that every contesting candidate will have to open separate bank account for election expenditure at least one day before the date on which candidate filed nomination. He said the total expenditure will not exceed maximum limit of Rs 28 lakh per Assembly Constituency. This expenditure includes public meetings and rallies, posters, banners vehicles and advertisements in print and electronic media.
“Contesting candidate or his representative will have to submit an expenditure plan with application for permission in respect of public meetings and rallies etc.,” he said.
The Chief Electoral Officer also said if candidate or his agent shares dais with star campaigner or name of the candidate mentioned by star campaigner or photographs of candidate are displayed at the site of public rally then entire expenditure in public rally except travel expenses of star campaigner shall be included in candidate's account.
Rajpoot said that permission must be obtained from Returning Officer (RO) in respect of all vehicles to be used during electioneering and displayed in front of the vehicle. If any vehicle is found used for campaign without permission, RO will take action. If expenses on construction of barricades, rostrums etc. are made by government agencies on account of security considerations it would be booked in candidate's account in whose constituency the meeting takes place.
The CEO said that each political party would have to maintain register of election expenditure. The candidates would submit these registers to expenditure Observer for inspection at least three times during campaign period. He requested all the political parties to strictly adhere to Election Model code of conduct and also invited suggestions for fair and smooth conduct of election.
The representatives of Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM were present in the meeting.