Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol issued notice for crossing over election expenditure limit
CHANDIGARH: Bollywood actor and BJP’s Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur Sunny Deol has been issued a notice as he had reportedly spent around Rs 86 lakh on his election campaign while the Election Commission of India (ECI) has fixed the official limit at Rs 70 lakh.
The notice, issued by Gurdaspur District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujjwal, has asked the actor to explain his poll expenditure during the recent Lok Sabha elections.
"it is not only Deol who is being questioned. It is a pan India exercise and every candidate who has overshot his limit is being asked to explain, as his (Deol) election expenditure was found to be more than Rs 70 lakh limit," said Ujwal.
The official further said, "It is too early to comment on the overspending right now. It is a normal statutory notice. As every candidate is issued such a notice after the elections for the reconciliation of their accounts. We have issued this notice to him for reconciliation of accounts and the final figure of the election expenditure will be known only after the reconciliation and settlement of the accounts. ‘’
This notice was issued to Deol after two expenditure observers Aditya Bajpai and Rajesh Dhanishta found discrepancies in his expenditure account. Presently both these officers are camping in Gurdaspur.
The expenditure details are monitored from the day a candidate files his or her nomination papers till the day of the counting.
Sources pointed out that during the election campaign, the ECI had ordered that Rs 1.74 lakh be added to Deol’s election expenditure records after it was found that his team was running an undisclosed Facebook account "Fans of Sunny Deol’’.
Pathankot Mayor Anil Vasudeva, who had prepared Deol’s nomination paper’s said, "we have received the notice and will be filing the reply soon as we have all the records.’’
It is learnt that the reconciliation of accounts is likely to continue till June 22 and 23.
Deol defeated Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar with a margin of 82,459 votes.