BENGALURU: The money factor is keeping many political aspirants away from taking the plunge into electoral battle. But if you think fighting an election is a costly affair, you better have a rethink. At least that is what political leaders from Karnataka have conveyed through their affidavits submitted to the Election Commission on their expenditure to fight the recent assembly election.
It cost just Rs 9.51 lakh for Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to contest the assembly election from Ramanagaram and he has spent Rs 10.22 lakh for his campaign in Chennapatna as he had contested in two constituencies. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara has spent Rs 8.69 lakh in his constituency Koratagere.
The Election Commission has set a spending limit of Rs 28 lakh per candidate in the assembly election and the candidates have shown their expenditure well within the limit. What is interesting is that the expenditure incurred by Kumaraswamy in two constituencies and Parameshwara in one, together comes up to just around Rs 28 lakh, which is the limit set for one candidate in a constituency!
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah has incurred an expenditure of Rs 17.51 lakh to fight the election in Chamundeshwari and just Rs 19.60 lakh in Badami, which witnessed a high-pitch campaign with BJP’s Sriramulu giving a tough fight. Sriramulu has shown an expenditure of Rs 20.02 lakh for his campaign in the same constituency.
BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa has spent Rs 18.14 lakh to win from Shikaripur, while Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda shelled out a meager Rs 4.36 lakh to contest from Byatarayanapura.“The expenditure shown by our leaders is a farce as expenditure on fighting even a college union election now is more than the amount mentioned by some of our leaders,” quipped political analyst Harish Ramaswamy.