The Congress party released Rs 70 lakh each to its top leader Rahul Gandhi to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Wayanad and Rae Bareli.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had won from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha as well as Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala with a considerable margin, but in accordance to rules, he retained the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh and vacated the Wayanad seat. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party had won 99 seats in 2024 parliamentary elections.
Highest amount of Rs 87 lakh to Mandi candidate Vikramaditya Singh
For a single constituency, Congress transferred the highest amount of Rs 87 lakh to Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh, who unsuccessfully contested from Mandi against actor-turned BJP leader Kangana Ranaut. The party also gave Rs 75 lakh to Rakibul Hussain, its candidate from Assam’s Dhubri constituency.
Funds for other Congress candidates
As per reports, other Congress leaders who got Rs 70 lakh from the party include Kishori Lal Sharma, who defeated BJP’s sitting MP Smriti Irani in Amethi Lok Sabha seat besides KC Venugopal, MP from Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat in Kerala and Manikam Tagore from Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu.
Congress candidate Radhakrishna from Gulbarga in Karnataka and Vijay Inder Singla, candidate from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, also received Rs 70 lakh each. However, reports revealed, senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Digvijay Singh, who lost the election, received Rs 46 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively.
SP doles out Rs 132.15 crore for Akhilesh, Dimple
Samajwadi Party (SP) handed over Rs 60 lakh to its chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rs 72.15 lakh for his wife Dimple Yadav to contest 2024 LS polls from Kannauj and Mainpuri parliamentary constituencies.
SP’s star winner Awadesh Prasad got Rs 20 lakh from his party to contest the toughtest of all contests of Faizabad seat, where Ayodhya is located. Prasad shocked everyone including exits polls by winning the seat.
Trinamool Congress gave Rs 75 lakh each to all its 48 candidates
Further, details of expenditure submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) revealed that Trinamool Congress gave Rs 75 lakh each (or a total of Rs 36 crore) to all its 48 candidates in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya while DMK gave Rs 70 lakh each (total Rs 15.40 crore) to all its 22 candidates in Tamil Nadu.
These details are in the ‘Part Election Expenditure Statements’ related to Lok Sabha elections submitted by various parties in the past couple of months and made public by the Election Commission.
Election campaign expenses norms
Although there is a limit on the expenditure made by the candidate on election campaign, there is no such limit for political parties.
In January 2022, based on the recommendation of the Election Commission, the government had increased the election expenditure limit for candidates contesting Lok Sabha elections polls from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 95 lakh besides had also increased the limit of Rs 28 lakh to Rs 40 lakh for candidates contesting assembly polls.
For Lok Sabha elections, the revised expenditure limit is now Rs 90 lakh for larger states and Rs 75 lakh is for smaller states including Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim.
Among Union Territories (UT), the ceiling is Rs 95 lakh in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir while Rs 75 lakh if for the rest.
