Mismatch between poll expense claims of parties, MPs: Report

Source:

The Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/mismatch-between-poll-expense-claims-of-parties-mps-report/articleshow/32615241.cms

Date:

24.03.2014

City:

New Delhi

NEW DELHI: There has been a mis-match between declarations made by political parties and their MPs on money granted and received by them respectively for poll expenditure, Association for Democratic Reforms, which monitors election related activities, today claimed.

An ADR report said out of 123 MPs to whom Congress has declared to have given lumpsum amounts for election expenditure, 81 MPs declared NIL amount received. Among them are Pranab Mukherjee, who had contested the 2009 election, and Union Ministers P Chidambaram and Sriprakash Jaiswal.

The organisation claimed to have analysed expenditure statements of certain political parties and their candidates for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and said there have been discrepancies in financial declarations.

ADR said it analysed expenditure statements of 388 MPs out of 277 were from national parties.

Based on expenditure statements of MPs from national parties, the report said a total of Rs 7.46 crore was declared by 75 MPs as received from their parties but the national parties have declared that Rs 14.19 crore was given to 138 MPs.

The report said out of 123 MPs to whom Congress has declared to have given lumpsum amounts for election expenditure, 81 MPs have declared NIL amount received.

Pranab Mukherjee, who was given Rs 15 lakh as declared by the party in the 2009 election, has mentioned that no lump sum amount was received for his election expenses, the report claimed.

A total of Rs 3.45 crore was given by Congress to its 33 Ministers. However, 22 Ministers have declared they received no amount while only four have declared the same amount as their party's declaration

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Mines Minister Dinsha Patel, Finance Minister P Chidambaram were among 23 others who have declared that they received no lumpsum amount from their parties while Congress declared they gave a total of Rs 2.35 crore or an average of Rs 10 lakhs to these MPs.

The report said discrepencies were reported in declarations of Congress and what Subodh Kant Sahay, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Manish Tewari, Sachin Pilot and Beni Prasad Verma claimed.

The ADR said BJP reported that they did not financially support even one winning candidate but 25 MPs declared that they received a total of Rs 2.75 crore from their party.