In 2009 polls, 30% of 437 MPs spent less than half the permitted limit, says ADR study

While candidates have claimed that their election expense limit is very low, leading the Government to clear a proposal to hike it recently, an analysis of declarations filed by 437 MPs in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections shows that 30 per cent of them spent less than 50 per cent of the permitted limit.

The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an independent non-profit body, which analysed declarations made to the Election Commission, said the average amount spent by 437 MPs was only ₹14.62 lakh (59 per cent of the expense limit), which is way below the recent hike in limit from ₹40 lakh to ₹70 lakh for each Lok Sabha constituency in big States.

For smaller States, the limit has been hiked to ₹54 lakh from ₹22 lakh.

Interestingly, a party-wise analysis shows that the average spending for 161 MPs of Congress was only ₹14.38 lakh, for 91 MPs of the BJP, the average was a mere ₹14.43 lakh, for 21 MPs of Samajwadi Party, it was ₹19.48 lakh and the average spending of 19 MPs of Bahujan Samaj Party stood at ₹14.72 lakh.

Also, 317 MPs (73 per cent) declared that none of the expense incurred by them was funded by the political party that fielded him/her, with only 27 per cent saying that a part of their expenditure was funded by their party.

Calling for greater transparency in the declarations made and the actual expenses incurred by candidates, Trilochan Sastry, Founder, ADR, said “….Everyone knows about the huge amount of black money in elections. Gopinath Munde (BJP leader) said he spent more than ₹8 crore. We need to curb this blatant misuse of black money in elections.”

He said raising the ceiling did not address the major concerns.

“First, we need a level playing ground so that any public-minded citizen with a desire for public service should be able to contest elections and not be at a disadvantage. Raising the ceiling has no impact on that.

“Second, we need more transparency in the funding and source of funding, along with penalties for not being transparent. This is also not addressed.

“Third, we need penalties for crossing the new limit of ₹70 lakh. This is also not been taken care of,” he added.