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 our leaders 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 Ramanagara and he has spent Rs 10.22 lakh for his campaign in Channapatna as he had contested in two constituencies. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara has spent Rs 8.69 lakh (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.BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa has spent Rs 18.14 lakh to win from Shikaripur.
Expenditure shown by leaders a farce, says political analyst
The statement of expenditure filed by the leaders raises questions about their credibility considering the real cost of organising public rallies, vehicles and workers for campaigning, expenditure on campaign material and distribution of cash for voters in most of the constituencies which run into crores as admitted by many leaders in private.
“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,” says political analyst Harish Ramaswamy.
Raising the ceiling on spending to a realistic level, making political funding more transparent and state funding of election are some of the means for bringing greater transparency in expenditure. But in the absence of political will among political parties to bring the changes in electoral laws, only a strong public opinion for changes in the statute could compel our leaders to act in this regard, Ramaswamy opines.
LIST OF PROMINENT LEADERS AND THE AMOUNT THEY SPENT:
H D Kumaraswamy Rs 9.51 lakh (Ramanagaram)
H D Kumaraswamy Rs 10.22 lakh (Channapatna)
Siddaramaiah Rs 19.60 lakh(Badami)
Siddaramaiah Rs 17.51 lakh (Chamundeshwari)
B S Yeddyurappa Rs 18.14 lakh (Shikaripur)
G Parameshwara Rs 8.69 lakh (Koratagere)
D K Shivakumar Rs 12.96 lakh (Kanakapura)
Jagadish Shettar Rs 16.56 lakh (Hubballi-Dharwad Central)
G T Devegowda Rs 10.64 lakh (Chamundeshwari)
H D Revanna Rs 9.90 lakh (Holenarasipura)
Zameer Ahmed Khan Rs 26.93 lakh (Chamarajpet)
Dinesh Gundu Rao Rs 18.88 lakh (Gandhinagar)
R V Deshpande Rs 22.25 lakh (Haliyal)
K S Eshwarappa Rs 17.80 lakh (Shivamogga)
Krishna Byre Gowda Rs 4.36 lakh (Bytarayanapura)