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Poll expenses way below EC limit, claim 'poor' MPs
Created on 22-12-2009 6:22 pm



While filing his nomination papers, TDP MP Nama Nageshwara Rao had declared assets worth Rs 173 crore. That makes him the richest MP in Parliament. Yet, as per EC records, he spent a mere Rs 13 lakh on his poll campaign. Same is the case with Congress's Naveen Jindal (declared assets: Rs Rs 131 crore) who spent around Rs 18 lakh on campaigning and NCP's Praful Patel who is worth Rs 89 crore but chose to spend just Rs 13 lakh during the election. Politicians have been lobbying with the Election Commission to enhance the poll expense limit from the current Rs 25 lakh to over Rs 1 crore or even a no-limit given the devaluation of the rupee. But an analysis of expenditure details submitted by candidates to EC reveals contestants from all parties have on an average spent less than 55% of the limit. What makes it more interesting is the fact that country's top 10 crorepati MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha -- the list includes Rao, Jindal and Patel -- had incurred an average expenditure of a mere Rs 15 lakh on their elections. Former Andhra Pradesh CM and late YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy of the Congress, who had declared assets worth Rs 72 crore, spent one of the lowest sums among the country's top crorepati MPs -- Rs 11 lakh. Another party MP from the state, L Rajagopal, who is lobbying for a united Andhra Pradesh and had declared assets worth Rs 122 crore before EC, had also spent Rs 11 lakh, according to an analysis by watchdog NGO, National Election Watch, on the basis of expenditure details procured from EC. Raising serious doubts on the authenticity of expenditure information being provided by MPs, former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh said, "Going by the average election expenses of the candidates during Lok Sabha elections, it seems our politicians are very poor people." These expenses should be computed by an external authority, he demanded. The list goes on. Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule, with assets of Rs 50 crore, spent just around Rs 20 lakh. Yet that seems like a huge splurge if you compare it with the amounts spent by established politicians. Lalu Prasad of RJD is shown to have spent next to nothing -- Rs 1.46 lakh -- on his campaign. He is followed by Sharad Pawar (Rs 1.80 lakh), Shushma Swaraj (Rs 8.90 lakh), Milind Deora (Rs 10 lakh), Rahul Gandhi (Rs 11 lakh) and Sonia Gandhi (Rs 12 lakh). Despite this, the winnability factor was still determined by the extent of riches one brought to the poll arena. Explained Anil Bairwal, NEW coordinator, "The maximum number of candidates who won were from the category that had highest declared assets of Rs 5 crore and above. More than 32% of candidates from this category became MPs. The success rate was 18% for those who had assets between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 5 crore and 6% for those who had their assets valued between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. General (retd) Shankar Roychowdhury said, "The expenses declared by candidates are a farce and seem to be making mockery of the entire system." Added former super cop Julio Rebeiro, who is associated also with NEW, "While voters saw a naked display of money power in the Lok Sabha elections, it is surprising that most candidates have shown that they did not even use up the election expense limit of Rs 25 lakh."

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