According to Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every contesting candidate has to lodge a true copy of his election expenses within 30 days from the date of declaration of result of election, with the District Election Officer in all States and Union Territories.
Puducherry Election Watch and
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analyzed the election expenditure statements submitted after the Puducherry 2016 Assembly Elections for 30 MLAs. The expenditure limit for the candidates during the Puducherry Assembly elections was
Rs. 20 lakhs. Candidates have constantly claimed that the election expenditure limit set is very low.
However, based on the election expense declarations of 30 MLAs analysed from the 2016 Puducherry Assembly elections to the CEO, 27 MLAs (90 per cent) have declared election expenses of less than 50 per cent of the expense limit in their constituency. Based on the election expense declarations of 30 MLAs from Puducherry Assembly to the CEO, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is only about Rs. 5.12 lakhs, which is 26 per cent of the expense limit.
The party wise average election expenses show that the average spending for 15 MLAs from INC is Rs. 5.48 lakhs (27 per cent of the expense limit), for 8 MLAs from All India NR Congress is Rs. 4.38 lakhs (22 per cent of the expense limit), for 4 MLAs from AIADMK is Rs. 3.52 Lakhs (18 per cent of the expense limit), and for 2 MLAs from DMK is Rs. 7.25 Lakhs (36 per cent of the expense limit). The maximum expense of about Rs. 10.36 lakhs (52 per cent of the expense limit) has been declared by A Geetha of DMK from Neravy TR Pattinam constituency followed by Kamalakannan R of INC from Thirunallar constituency with an expense of Rs. 10.17 lakhs (or 51 per cent of the expense limit) and PRN Thirumurugan of All India NR Congress from Karaikal North constituency with an expense of Rs.10.13 lakhs (or 51 per cent of the expense limit).
Baskar of AIADMK from Mudaliarpet constituency has declared election expenditure of Rs. 1.95 lakhs followed by A Anbalagan of AIADMK from Oupalam Constituency with election expenses of Rs. 2.14 lakhs and NSJ Jayabal Alias Ayyanar of All India NR Congress from Kadirgamam Constituency with election expenses of Rs. 2.17 lakhs. The election expenditure of V Narayanasamy has not been analysed as he was elected as Chief Minister without contesting the elections.
Based on the election expense declarations of 5 Ministers analysed from Puducherry Assembly, 2016 to the ECI, 4 ministers (80 per cent) have declared election expenses of less than 50 per cent of the expense limit in their constituency. Based on the election expense declarations of 5 ministers from Puducherry Assembly 2016 to the ECI, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is only about Rs. 5.62 lakhs, which is 28 per cent of the expense limit.
The maximum expense of about Rs. 10.17 Lakhs (51 per cent of the expense limit) has been declared by Kamalakannan R of INC from Thirunallar constituency and Malladi Krishna Rao of INC from Yanam constituency with an expense of Rs. 6.61 Lakhs (or 33 per cent of the expense limit). A Namassivayam of INC from Villianur Constituency has declared an election expenditure of Rs. 2.57 lakhs (13 per cent of the expense limit). He is followed by Kandasamy M of INC from Embalam constituency who has declared election expenditure of Rs. 3.58 lakhs (18 per cent of the expense limit).
