Political parties’ demand to hike poll expenses for the respective candidates have failed to cut ice with the Election Commission of India (ECI) as all the contesting candidates have declared under oath that the amount spent by them is far less than the prescribed Rs14 lakh per Assembly seats. The maximum expense by any candidate in Delhi who contested in 2008 Assembly elections was declared by senior BJP leader Dr Harsh Vardhan who submitted details of expenditure to ECI of having spent Rs6.79 lakh during 2008 Assembly polls. Strangely, a total of Rs9.04 lakh was spent by 11 candidates, including Congress candidate Rajesh lilothia and BJP candidate Anita Arya in Patel Nagar constituency in 2008 Assembly elections.
An analysis of the declared expenditure of the other candidates shows that all the candidates spent an amount far less compared to the cap of Rs14 lakh and those who lost the election had spent more money than the winning candidate.
Sources said that poll watchdog is in no mood to jack up poll expense ceiling since the parties and the candidates have declared a lesser amount as total expenditure.
The election officials also devised a rate chart based on the prevailing market rates for tea, snacks, tents, chairs, campaigning rates through social, print and electronic media for the political parties in Delhi.
Following ECI’s directives, Chief Electoral Office (CEO) has started maintaining a shadow register of expenses being incurred by respective candidates and this has sent jitters through political circles.
In some cases, candidates have shown expenditure in paise and that has very few takers in the ECI and Delhi CEO. To explain 26 paise or 84 paise is not easy since one cannot buy anything for that amount for it to be reimbursed.
Sources told The Pioneer that a majority of candidates conceal their expenses; what they disclose is sheer pittance. This practice will be stopped with tighter rein over individual spending by candidates.
Total expense declared by candidates is now going against them since the ECI is not willing to allow them to raise the expense ceiling and has decided to crack the whip instead. This has unnerved many.
EC keeps tabs on past poll expenses
As per data compiled by ECI, senior BJP leader Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is an MlA from Krishna Nagar had spent Rs6.79 lakh in 2008 Assembly polls while 18 candidates have contested from Krishna Nagar and they spent a meagre Rs10.35 lakh in campaigning. Congress MlA Jaswant Rana who had contested from
Narela constituency spent Rs2,57,694.26 while BJP candidate Ajit Singh spent Rs2,66,032. Congress MlA Devender Yadav from Badli constituency had spent Rs2,57,397 while BJP candidate Rajesh Yadav had spent Rs4,06,721. Manoj Shokeen of BJP has shown Rs3,60,875.84 as poll expenditure while Prem Chand Kaushik of Congress has spent Rs4,53,788 while Shambhu Dayal Sharma spent Rs5,29,444 in 2008. Congress MlA Surender Kumar has shown Rs3,95,004 as his entire poll expenses while Chand Ram of BJP declared Rs3,01,263 as the total expense.
Strangely, in Patel Nagar, 11 candidates had spent Rs9.04 lakh. Of these, Congress MlA Rajesh lilothia has spent Rs2,84,190 while BJP candidate Anita Arya disclosed Rs2,28,532 as poll expenses. From Rajouri Garden, Dayanand Chandela has shown Rs2,35,336 as poll expenses while Avtar Singh Hit has shown Rs5,30,661 and Duli Chand of NCP shown Rs27,8575. The saffron has given Rajouri Garden seat to Shiromani Akali Dal. In Hari Nagar, BJP MlA Harsharan Singh Balli has shown Rs2,36,542 while Ramesh lamba of Congress has shown Rs3,73,803.