Lucknow: A detailed scrutiny by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) of election expenditure filed by 393 Uttar Pradesh MLAs to the district election officer’s office revealed that on an average, only 47% of the money was spent against the expenditure limit of Rs 40 lakh.

The election expense documents include details of expenses on public meetings and processions, campaigning through electronic and print media, expense on campaign workers, expense on vehicles used and expense on campaign materials.

The ADR claimed that Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki from Apna Dal (Sonelal) who contested from Bindki assembly constituency of Fatehpur district, which is counted as one of the backward ones, spent a maximum Rs 35.99 lakh for the 2022 legislative assembly election. He was followed by Nishad Party MLA Ramesh from Shahganj seat of Jaunpur district. He spent Rs 35.97 lakh and BJP’s Saiyad Raja MLA Sushil Singh from Chandauli district spent Rs 35.78 lakh in the election campaign. According to ADR, out of 393 MLAs analysed, 222 (56%) MLAs have declared expenses less than 50% of the expense limit in their constituency. Further, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is Rs 18.88 lakh, which is 47% of the expense limit.

When data was analyzed party-wise, the average spending for 247 MLAs from BJP was Rs 21.08 lakh (52.7% of the expense limit).

For 109 MLAs from SP, the average election expenditure was Rs 14.88 lakh (37.2% of the expense limit), the average election expenditure for two MLAs from was Rs 22.66 lakh (56.7% of the expense limit) and one BSP MLA has spent Rs 9.43 lakh (23.6% of the expense limit).