Expansion

Whenever elections come, the commission fixes an amount that the candidates cannot spend more than this. But hardly anyone would follow the guidelines at the time of elections. A report prepared by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said that MLAs who won the December 2022 Gujarat assembly polls spent an average of Rs 27.10 lakh or 68 per cent of the expenditure limit on campaigning.

Under the Representation of the People Act, winning candidates are required to file election expenditure statements within 30 days of the result. In the case of Gujarat elections, the deadline was January 8, 2023. An analysis of these affidavits by ADR showed that the 156 MLAs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spent an average of Rs 27.94 lakh. The report said that 17 MLAs of Congress spent an average of Rs 24.92 lakh while five MLAs of AAP spent Rs 15.63 lakh.

Individually, BJP’s Jairam Ganit (MLA from Tapi) declared the highest expenditure of Rs 38 lakh, followed by Laxmanji Thakor (Gandhinagar) and Kirit Dabhi (Ahmedabad) with election expenditure of Rs 37.78 lakh and Rs 36 lakh. announced. The lone MLA Kandal Jadeja of Samajwadi Party spent the lowest amount of Rs 6.87 lakh, followed by Amit Chavda of Congress and Umesh Makwana of AAP at Rs 9.28 lakh and Rs 9.64 lakh, respectively. 

Apart from the usual items of expenditure like advertisements, public meetings and processions of star campaigners, campaign vehicles and workers, 20 MLAs also said they spent money on virtual campaigns. A total of 40 MLAs spent on declaring pending criminal cases against them in the print media under election rules.