Accounts claim political parties cut funds for candidate

NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week lamenting the staggering amounts being spent by political parties in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in the absence of any fixed outer limits -- unlike for candidates.

The latest paperwork submitted by political parties to the Election Commission seems to reflect this trend -- while all accounts so far indicate massive election spending by political parties in 2019, they all seem to be cutting funding for their candidates.

At least, that’s what is reflected in the first expenditure details on Lok Sabha 2019 elections filed with the Election Commission of India.


Almost all parties -- Congress and BJP have yet to file statements -- seem to have trimmed down candidate funding except for friends and family.

Samajwadi Party had been generous to its candidates in 2014, and more so to the family. But this time around, the cut has affected the family as well.

Party patriarch Mulyam Sungh Yadav, who led with a Rs 67 lakh funding for Mainpuri in 2014, had to make do with Rs 35 lakh in this election. While most candidates got Rs 8 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, the family has done better than the average SP candidate -- son Akhilesh Yadav, daughterin-law Dimple Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay Yadav and the controversial Azam Khan bagged Rs 35 lakh each.

Shalini Yadav, who took on PM Modi in Varanasi, was given Rs 25 lakh to contest the polls, while Poonam Shatrughan Sinha, who took on BJP veteran Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, was handed out Rs 15 lakh by the party.

In 2014, SP gave Rs 70 lakh to Sudeep Sen in West Bengal and Dimple Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav contested with Rs 40 lakh party funding in their kitty.

Aam Aadmi Party, which generated considerable buzz in the last Lok Sabha elections and spent Rs 7.7 crore in 2014 on its candidates, reported a steep decline in its election expenditure this time with Rs 1.3 crore spent on candidates. The party, in fact, showed no money given to its sole winning candidate and Lok Sabha MP Bhagwant Mann, who represented Sangrur in Punjab.

AAP opened up its purse strings for its Delhi candidates, giving out the maximum amount to its East Delhi candidate Atishi Marlena ( Rs 35 lakh), Rs 28 lakh to Brajesh Goyal in New Delhi, Rs 27 lakh to Raghav Chadha, Rs 21lakh to Pankaj Gupta for the Chandni Chowk contest. JDS, which has just suffered a toppled government in Karnataka, spent Rs 4.55 crore in 2019 -- down from well over Rs 6 crore in 2014. The party patriarch HD Deve Gowda predictably bagged the maximum amount, Rs 66 lakh. The rest got Rs 3-20 lakh. In 2014, the party spent up to R 50 lakh on several candidates with HD Kumaraswamy, G Shekhar, C Puttaraju and Mathew P Thamous getting the highest amount -- Rs 50 lakh each.