The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to take a decision against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal for his overspending in the Assembly polls in December 2013. More than two months have elapsed and two meetings held, but the Commission is still indecisive and has failed to reach any decision over the contentious issue. The Chief Electoral Office (CEO) of Delhi has written to the Election Commission of India to take appropriate action against him.
Top sources told The Pioneer that the Commission has failed to take decision in the matter despite two marathon meetings. In a letter to Shangara Ram, Principal Secretary, Election Commission of India, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Goyal has sought necessary action against Kejriwal for over-expenditure in the Assembly polls. The maximum spending limit in the Assembly poll is fixed at Rs 14 lakh per candidate. But in this case, Kejriwal had spent over Rs 21 lakh during the campaigning in New Delhi Assembly constituency. It may be noted that former Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta and former Mayor of Delhi Arti Mehra have also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking rejection of his membership from Delhi Assembly in connection with exceeding election expenditure.
“Under Section 10A of the Representation of People’s Act, the issue has taken serious proportion as it falls under the purview of the Election Commission of India now,” said officials of the Electoral Office (EO) in Delhi. This committee decided to split this expenditure proportionately between three candidates —Arvind Kejriwal, Somnath Bharti and Surinder Singh — since all the Expenditure Monitoring Committee referred to an Election Commission of India directive (dated 18-04-2013) which stated: “If the rally/meeting is organised in the constituency of the leader (star campaigner) where the leader shares the dais with other contesting candidates, then the meeting expenses is to be apportioned to the election expenditure of all such candidates.”
Based on the aforesaid ECI directive, the amount of Rs 13,05,486 has been placed in the expense account of Kejriwal. District Election Officer Ameya Abhyankar forwarded this matter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and subsequently it has been forwarded to the Election Commission of India.