THRISSUR: Though the minimum expenditure fixed by the election commission was Rs 28 lakh for each Assembly segment, at least double that amount was spent by the candidates of all the major political parties in the elections. The posters, pamphlets and flex boards erected by them indicate that money above the limit was spent by the candidates.
Later, they will produce the bills showing less than half the numbers of posters, pamphlets and flex boards printed and erected and less than the fixed amount in their expenditure statement after elections. A Congressman told DC that the all political parties had election campaign committees for each segment. Along with the funds of the party, money was raised from businessmen and by the candidates themselves.
The campaign committee hands over the money to those who head the booth committees. In a constituency with an average of 140 booths, Rs 5,000 is normally given to booth-level campaign twice or thrice. If such an amount reaches the booth thrice, the money spent by the candidate becomes Rs 21 lakh per segment apart from other expenses.
However, an official who was in-charge of monitoring the expenditure of the candidate here said that he noticed nothing unethical in terms of money spent by the candidates. “I have not received any complaints with regard to the expenditure from any of the political parties and we have not observed anything unusual,” Mr Saroj Kumar Shadangi, who worked as observer for Chelakkara, Guruvayur and Kunnamkulam segments told DC.
