Despite pushing for and getting the ceiling on election expenditure raised, MPs continue to declare election expenses far below the amount they are legally allowed.
On an average, winning candidates in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election claimed that they spent Rs. 40.33 lakh, just 58 per cent of the Rs. 70 lakh they are allowed to.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed the election expenditure statements filed by 537 MPs. They found that a third of MPs declared expenses of less than Rs. 35 lakh, which is half of what they are entitled to spend.
ADR also found that 16 MPs — nine of them from the BJP — had declared expenditure incurred by them through their personal funds, which amounted to more than their declared assets.
On an average, candidates in Meghalaya, Kerala and Sikkim spent the most and those in Manipur, Mizoram and Lakshadweep spent the least. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were also among the States with the lowest declared spending.
There was little to separate the average declared expense of a BJP and Congress candidate, both just short of Rs. 42 lakh. The Shiromani Akali Dal had the highest declared expenses (just over Rs. 50 lakh per candidate) and the YSR Congress Party the lowest (just over Rs. 21 lakh).
At the moment, political parties are allowed to spend limitless amounts on election campaigns. ADR has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court asking for, among other electoral reforms, a cap to be put on party spending depending on the number of candidates fielded, ADR founded member Jagdeep Chhokar told The Hindu .
Expenditure on vehicles formed the largest portion (29 per cent) of election spending, on an average. While expenditure on public meetings and rallies without the star campaigner formed the next highest segment (24 per cent), 24 candidates claimed that they hadn’t spent any money on this. Another 108 claimed that they did not spend any money on rallies with star campaigners. Over 100 claimed they had not spent any money on advertising.
Parties claimed that expenditure on advertising shows up in party accounts. However, Mr. Chhokar said it remained unclear how exactly these ads were paid for.
Most MPs were bankrolled by their parties, but 194 claimed to have received no funds from their parties. As many as 165 MPs claimed to have received no funds from corporate firms or individuals.
