New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) The average expenditure of the winning candidates in last year’s Bihar elections stood at around Rs 24.33 lakh, with around 42 per cent MLAs declaring election expenses less than 61 per cent of the Rs 40 lakh limit, a report said.
According to the report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the candidate expenditure limit for the Bihar elections was Rs 40 lakh, and out of the 240 MLAs analysed, 100 or 42 per cent declared expenses less than 61 per cent of that limit.
Based on the election expense declarations of the 240 MLAs, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections stood at Rs 24.33 lakh.
A party-wise breakup showed that the average spending by 88 BJP MLAs was Rs. 27.36 lakh or 68.4 per cent of the expense limit.
For the 84 MLAs of the JD(U), the average election expenditure was Rs 25.53 lakh or 63.8 per cent of the expense limit, while the figures stood at Rs.19.60 lakh or 49 per cent of the limit for the 19 Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) MLAs.
For the five MLAs of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), the average election expenditure was Rs 16.89 lakh (42.2 per cent), while it stood at Rs 24.84 lakh (62.1 per cent) for the four legislators of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
Among the opposition parties, Rs 19.57 lakh was declared as the average election expenditure of 24 RJD MLAs, or 48.9 per cent of the expense limit, Rs 13 lakh (32.5 per cent) for six Congress MLAs, Rs 17.05 lakh (42.6 per cent) for two CPI(ML) Liberation MLAs, Rs 21.39 lakh (53.5 per cent) for the lone CPI(M) MLA, Rs 17.37 lakh (43.4 per cent) for five AIMIM MLAs, Rs 23.74 lakh (59.4 per cent) for the one MLA of the Indian Inclusive Party, while the lone BSP legislator spent Rs 18.34 lakh or 45.9 per cent of the expense limit, the report said.
Alok Kumar Mehta of the RJD, who won from Ujiarpur, was the highest spender at Rs 36.55 lakh, around 91 per cent of the expense limit, while JD(U)’s Sursand MLA Nagendra Raut spent the least at Rs 79,000, it said.
Out of the total funds received by the MLAs, 70 per cent was raised from political parties, 13 per cent by the candidates themselves, while 17 per cent of funds was raised from other sources.