No UP MLA breached the expense limit: ADR report

Lucknow, July 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) None of the newly elected legislators in the UP assembly have breached the Rs 40 lakh limit of expenditure during elections.

Only three MLAs have spent more than Rs 35 lakh. They are Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki of Apna Dal, Ramesh of Nishad Party and Sushil Singh of the BJP.

According to an analytical report released by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday, the election expenses report of 339 MLAs out of 403 MLAs were analysed.

The report said that 222 (56 per cent) MLAs have declared election expenses less than 50 per cent of the limit in their constituency.

Based on the election expense declarations of 393 MLAs from Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is Rs 18.88 lakh, which is 47 per cent of the expense limit.

The party wise average election expenses shows that the average spending for 247 MLAs from BJP is Rs 21.08 lakh (52.7 per cent of the expense limit).

For 109 MLAs from SP, the average election expenditure is Rs 14.88 lakh (37.2 per cent of the expense limit), while the average election expenditure for 2 MLAs from INC is Rs 22.66 lakh (56.7 per cent of the expense limit) and 1 BSP MLA has spent Rs 9.43 lakh (23.6 per cent of the expense limit).

Two MLAs who spent a little over Rs one lakh on their elections are Himanshu of SP and Tasleem Ahmad, also from SP.

Nearly 387 MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign vehicles and only 6 MLAs have declared that they have not spent funds on campaign vehicles.

The ADR report further says that 254 MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaigning through electronic/print media and 139 MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on campaigning through electronic/print media.

Source: IANS