Blatant use of money power was displayed during the recent elections for five assemblies, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry, but the newly elected MLAs have claimed in their expense statements submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) that they spent money well below the prescribed limit.

They have shown the average amount of total money spent in their election to be only between Rs 3.12 lakh and Rs 9.39 lakh (39% and 59% of the limit) in their declarations to the ECI.

The election expenses of all MLAs for the recent five assembly elections in were to be within 30 days of election, that is, by 13 June. The ECI analysed it and put the scanned copies of them on the web on Jun 20.

Many MLAs have claimed that they spent no money on organising public meetings, or on engaging vehicles or on advertisements during elections.

Here are the highlights:

1.    In all the states the average election expenditure for all MLAs is between Rs 7 to 9 lakhs though the expense limit is up to Rs 16 lakh;
2.    Nine MLAs in Assam and three MLAs from West Bengal have declared that they have not spent any amount on public meetings, processions etc;
3.    163 MLAs from West Bengal, 95 MLAs from Assam and 54 MLAs from Kerala have declared that they have not spent any amount on campaigning through electronic or print media;
4.    53 MLAs from West Bengal, 34 MLAs from Assam and 39 MLAs from Kerala have not spent any amount on campaign workers;
5.    Three MLAs from West Bengal have declared that they have not spent any amount on use of vehicles;
6.    Three MLAs from West Bengal and two MLAs from Assam have declared that they have not spent any amount on campaign materials like banners and posters or on erections of gates, arches etc.
7.    National Election Watch demands that the ECI should thoroughly investigate all the election expenses of candidates who have declared no or very low expenses on use of vehicles, campaign material, public meetings, campaign workers and print or electronic media to check the verity of these disclosures.

The cash seized by ECI's expenditure observers reached record levels in the last elections, with more than Rs 60 crore seized just from Tamil Nadu, however the analysis shows that 76 MLAs declared that they did not spend any money on public meetings, processions etc.

On the issue of paid news, 376MLAs have declared that they did not spend any money on campaign through electronic or print media. 183 MLAs declared that they have not spent money on campaign workers.

While most vehicles are found to be rented during elections and candidates travel in large cavalcades, eight MLAs have declared that they did not spend any money on vehicles. Whereas, 10 MLAs have declared that they did not spend on any type of campaign materials. 

An analysis of expense statements of all newly elected MLAs is being done for the first time ever within the deadline of 45 days (from the date of declaration of results) during which the election of a candidate can be challenged on grounds of under-declaration of election expenses. Since these results were declared on 13 May, the last date for filing an election petition will be 28 July.

As per section 81 of the Representation of People’s Act, any candidate or voter can file an election petition.