Parties hitching their wagon to a star will bear expenses. Political parties will have to be careful about calling star campaigners to the Assembly polls slated for December 4 in the national Capital. The Delhi Congress had sought clarification from the Electoral Office regarding star campaigners and their expenditure. Responding to it, the Chief Electorate Office of Delhi made it clear that the political parties will have to bear the expenses of star campaigners and if the candidates share a pandal or dais during public rally, 50 per cent expenditure will be added to their accounts.
The Electoral Office stated that while the travel expenses of star campaigners will not be added to the expenditure assessment of a candidate, the travel expenses of campaigners from allied parties will not be exempted.
“If a star campaigner travels with the candidate, 50 per cent of his travel expenditure will be added to the candidate’s account. If the candidate shares the pandal with the campaigner, or displays his photo or poster with the name in the meeting, the meeting expenses will also be added to his account. However, the entire cost has to be borne by the star campaigners in their own constituencies,” it said.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi will be star campaigners for the Congress, while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, lK Advani, Kirron Kher, Smriti Irani and Navjot Singh Sidhu will be star campaigners for the BJP.
Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev made
it clear that Election Commission of India (ECI) has brought with guidelines regarding star campaigners and their expenses during the polls and the Electoral Office will follow the election expenditure manual strictly.
He said that a list of star campaigners will have to be submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer within seven days of an election’s notification. Each candidate's expenditure limit is restricted to Rs 14 lakh in the Assembly polls by the ECI. Also, all candidates are expected to maintain a register for routine election expenditure.
“If the advertisement for general party propaganda with photo or appeal of the star campaigner is made in print and electronic media without any reference to
any candidate, then expenditure on such general advertisement should be booked to the account of the political party. If such leader happens to be a candidate in any constituency, the expenditure on such general party propaganda even if it contains his photo, in print and electronic media should not be booked to the account of the leader as it is in the nature of general party propaganda without any reference to his constituency,” stated the guidelines related to star campaigner.
“If the posters, banners, flags, stickers with photo or appeal of the star campaigners without any reference to any particular candidate are used during the elections, the expenditure should be booked to the account of the political party. If however, the leader happens to be a candidate in any constituency, then the proportionate expenditure on such items, actually used in his constituency, should be accounted for in his election expenses,” it said.
It further clarified that if any attendant, including security guards, medical attendants or any other person or any member of the party who is not a candidate in the constituency concerned, travels with the star campaigner of the political party in his vehicle/aircraft/helicopter, the travel expenses of such leader should be wholly booked to the account of the political party.
According to the guidelines, a candidate or party shall inform the district election officers about travel plans involving an aircraft or helicopter 24 hours in advance for landing and take off at non-commercial airports.
They also need to inform the officials concerned about the hiring charges within five days of landing.
The guidelines further stated that public rallies and meetings held after the announcement and before the notification of an election will be videographed for monitoring party expenditure.
Among other guidelines, people who attend a rally in their own vehicle without receiving any payment or without any flag, banner or photo of the candidate will not be counted but commercial vehicles will. The notional cost of fuel and driver salary of a personal vehicle used by the candidate will also be added.