In the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections, 13 per cent of the MLAs spent less than 50 per cent of the expense limit in their constituency, while the BJP MLAs on an average spent 69.9 per cent of the expense limit, according to a report of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Gujarat Election Watch.

In its report, the ADR said that out of 182 MLAs analysed, 23 (13 per cent) MLAs have declared election expenses less than 50 per cent of the expense limit in their constituency.

It said that based on the election expense declarations of 182 MLAs from Gujarat Assembly, the average amount of money spent by the MLAs in the elections is Rs 27.10 lakh, which is 68 per cent of the expense limit.

Highlighting the party-wise average election expenses, the report said, "The party wise average election expenses show that the average spending for 156 MLAs from BJP is Rs 27.94 lakh, which is 69.9 per cent of the expense limit."

It said that for 17 MLAs from Congress, who won in the elections, the average election expenditure is Rs 24.92 lakh, which is 62.3 per cent of the expense limit, while the average election expenditure for five MLAs from AAP is Rs 15.63 lakh, which is 39.1 per cent of the expense limit.

It also pointed out that the election expenditure for one MLA from SP is Rs 6.87 lakh, which is 17.2 per cent of the expense limit and three Independent MLAs spent Rs 21.59 lakh that is 54 per cent of the expense limit.

In the Gujarat assembly polls that were in December last year, the BJP won 156 out of 182 seats, while the Congress was reduced to 17 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that made its debut with a high-decibel campaign won five seats. Independents won three seats and the Samajwadi Party picked up one.