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Soni Mishra
Soni Mishra

POLL EXPENSE

On an average, Kerala MLAs spent Rs 19.64 lakhs in Assembly election

cpi-m-celebrates-pti [File] Average spending for the 55 MLAs of the CPI(M) was Rs 19.02 lakh | PTI

G. Sudhakaran of the CPI(M) made the highest expenditure in the Assembly elections in Kerala in May this year, spending Rs 27.82 lakh, followed by Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala (Rs 27.77 lakh) and K. Muraleedharan (27.73 lakh).

The figures gleaned from the election expenditure statements submitted by the MLAs to the Election Commission showed that the legislators spent an average of Rs 19.64 lakh in the Assembly elections, which is about 70 per cent of the expense limit.

As per the analysis of the statements done by the NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms, the average spending for the 55 MLAs of the CPI(M) was Rs 19.02 lakh and that of the 22 MLAs of the Congress was Rs 19.26 lakh while the average expense of the 19 CPI MLAs was Rs 20.19 lakh.

Vijaydas of the CPI(M) had the lowest expenditure of Rs 7.85 lakh, followed by Anoop Jacob of Kerala Congress (Jacob) who spent Rs 10.25 lakh. CPI(M) stalwart V.S. Achutanandan figured amongst the MLAs with the lowest expenditure, having spent only Rs 11.13 lakh.

The breakdown of the expenses showed that 42 per cent of the spending was on campaign materials, 26 per cent on vehicles and 17 per cent on holding public meetings. Only six per cent was spent on campaign workers. 25 per cent of the MLAs declared that they had not spent any amount on campaign workers.

Out of the funds received by the MLAs, 42 per cent was raised by the political parties, 14 per cent was raised by the candidates themselves and 44 per cent of the money came from other sources.

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Topics : #Kerala

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