Parties get to splurge till May 18

May 16, 2012 - N. Vamsi Srinivas |

Hyderabad

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The Election Commissioner’s diktats on poll expenditure have had little effect on the candidates’ spending for the upcoming bypolls since they do not have to account for the actual expenditure till they file their nominations.

With the elections being announced much before the actual notification, all the major political parties have made most of the situation and the candidates are getting away with splurging at least till May 18.
As per the rules of the Election Commission, the maximum amount an Assembly election candidate can spend is Rs 10 lakh. A Lok Sabha candidate can spend a maximum of Rs 25 lakh.

The three major political parties of the state, the Congress, Telugu Desam and the YSR Congress, had announced their candidates much before the schedule was announced and the top leaders like Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had started campaigning. “Though the model code of conduct comes into force from the day of announcing the polls, the expenditure of a candidate will be taken into account only from the day of filing nominations,” the chief electoral officer, Mr Bhanwar Lal, told this newspaper.

Leaders left free to splurge on campaigns
In addition to propaganda material and publicity vehicle expenditure, the candidates for the Assembly elections will not have to submit details as of now with regards to paid articles in newspapers, helicopter charges, if any, and expenditure relating to stay of star campaigners in the constituencies during the campaign.

Every political party submits a list of star campaigners like the Chief Minister or the party president and the candidate should bear 50 per cent of helicopter hire charges and the entire amount for the star campaigner’s stay. Meanwhile, the CEO has asked for a report from the Anantapur district collector over allegations of the revenue minister, Mr N. Raghuveera Reddy, violating the code by conducting a job mela and meeting RMPs in places where the bypolls are due.

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