Poll expenditure limit for assembly and sansad hiked by 60%

Assembly and Parliament level politics is no more an easy adventure for common poor/middcle class person anymore.

On Wednesday, central law ministry issued a notification amending the Conduct of Election Rules increasing the maximum poll expenditure for parliamentary constituencies to Rs 40 lakh and to Rs 16 lakh for assembly constituencies. Expenditure limit varies according to the size of states.

The upward revisions are understood to have been made on the recommendation of the Election Commission of India taking into consideration the demands of the political parties and inflation of costs since 2007 when the last changes were made.

The ministry believes this would deal with the use of black money in elections.

At present, in big states including Gujarat, the upper spending limit in parliamentary constituency is Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 lakh in assembly constituency.

But now the electoral candidates in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand would be able to spend Rs 40 lakh per constituency in parliamentary election and Rs 16 lakh in assembly election.

Gujarat will witness general assembly poll in December next year.