BJP MP from Gudaspur Sunny Deol may be in trouble as the Election Commission (EC) has asked him to explain his overspending on his election campaign during the recent Lok Sabha elections. Against the statutory limit of Rs 70 lakh, Deol is alleged to have spent Rs 86 lakh for his election campaign.
Earlier, on May 15, the EC had issued directions for adding Rs 1.74 lakh to Deol’s poll expenditure after he failed to respond to its query about a Facebook page being run in his support.
In a notice to Deol, the EC asked him to “reconcile” his poll expenditure account. The notice was issued by Gurdaspur District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujjwal.
“We have issued a notice to him (Deol) for reconciliation of accounts and the final figure of the poll expenditure will be known only after the reconciliation and settlement of the accounts. It is a normal issue,” Ujjwal said.
“It is too early to comment on the overspending right now. His poll expenditure was found to be more than Rs 70 lakh limit,” said Ujjwal adding after the elections, every candidate was issued notice for the reconciliation of their accounts.
According to the sources, the EC has received complaints about Deol exceeding the expenditure limits set by them. As per the EC norms crossing the expenses limit may lead to strict action against such MPs.
The Commission has the authority to even suspend such candidate’s membership of the Parliament and make the runner-up candidate as the winner.
Deol was elected MP from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat. He defeated Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar with a margin of 82,459 votes.
The Gurdaspur seat was earlier held by another actor-politician Vinod Khanna, whose passing away required BJP to look for another face.
Dressed in jeans, white shirt and blazer, actor Sunny Deol took oath as an MP on Tuesday amid cheers and slogans like ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ from the treasury benches.