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Press Release: Analysis of Election Expenditure statements of MLAs from the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025

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ADR India

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May 8, 2025, 5:15:00 AMMay 8

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Press Release

Date: May 08, 2025

Dear Friends,

According to Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every contesting candidate has to lodge a true copy of his election expenses within 30 days from the date of declaration of result of election, with the District Election Officer in all States and Union Territories. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Delhi Election Watch have analysed 69 out of 70 election expenditure statements submitted after the Delhi Assembly Election 2025 for newly elected MLAs. The election expenditure statement of 1 MLA namely Vijender Gupta (BJP) from Rohini constituency was not analysed as his expenditure statement was not available on the website at the time of making this report. The expenditure limit for the MLAs during the Delhi Assembly elections was Rs. 40 lakhs. These election expense documents include details of expenses on public meetings and processions, campaigning through electronic and print media, expense on campaign workers, expense on vehicles used, expense on virtual campaign, expense on publishing of declaration regarding criminal cases and expense on campaign materials.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/Analysis-of-Election-Expenditure-Statements-of-MLAs-Delhi-Assembly-2025

Recommendations:

1. Each Winner is required to file his election expenditure statement within 30 days of the results of the elections, the deadline in case of the Delhi Assembly Elections being the 7^th March 2025. However, it was observed that the election expenditure statements of the Winners were not uploaded on the CEO/DEO’s website till significantly after the deadline. It is recommended that the Abstract Expenditure Statement (Annexure E2) of the MLAs is uploaded on the website of the CEO within 72 hours of the receipt of the statement.

2. The deadline for filing an election petition against any Winner is 45 days after the declaration of the results. Generally, MLAs submit their election expenditure statements towards the end of the 30 days given for submission of the statements. This leaves 15 days for any common citizen to file an election petition against any Winner. The deadline for filing an election petition should be increased in order to give the citizens time to scrutinize the election expenditure statements of the MLAs and gather the relevant documents/proof etc. for the election petition.

3. As has been instated in the filing of affidavits during the elections, the MLAs should not be allowed to keep any field blank on the Abstract Election Expenditure statement (Annexure E2) and Schedule 1 to 11. The statements must be filled in a legible format and overwriting of amounts in the statement should be discouraged.

Summary and Highlights of Election Expenses of MLAs from the Delhi Assembly 2025 Elections

1. Less than 50% of the Limit: The candidate expenditure limit for Delhi assembly elections 2025 was Rs 40 lakhs. Out of 69 MLAs analysed, 31 (45%) MLAs have declared election expenses less than 50% of the expense limit in their constituency.

2. Average Election Expenses: Based on the election expense declarations of 69 MLAs from Delhi Assembly, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is Rs 20.79 lakhs, which is 52% of the expense limit.

3. Party-wise Average Election Expenses: The party wise average election expenses shows that the average spending for 47 MLAs from BJP is Rs.24.68 lakhs (61.7% of the expense limit) and 22 MLAs from AAP is Rs.12.48 lakhs (31.2% of the expense limit).

Figure: Party-wise Average Election Expenses (Rs.in lakhs)

4. Top 3 MLAs with highest Election Expenses: The details of top 3 MLAs who have declared highest election expenses are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Expense Limit (Rs.)	Total expenses incurred (Rs.)	% of limit reached
1	Anil Kumar Sharma	New Delhi	R K Puram	BJP	40,00,000 40 Lacs+	31,91,206 31 Lacs+	80%
2	Parduymn Singh Rajput	South-West	Dwarka	BJP	40,00,000 40 Lacs+	31,44,245 31 Lacs+	79%
3	Ashish Sood	West	Janakpuri	BJP	40,00,000 40 Lacs+	30,68,703 30 Lacs+	77%

Table: Top 3 MLAs with highest election expenditure

5. MLAs with lowest Election Expenses: The details of 3 MLAs who have declared lowest election expenses are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Expense Limit (Rs.)	Total expenses incurred (Rs.)	% of limit reached
1	Aaley Mohammed Iqbal	Central	Matia Mahal	AAP	40,00,000 40 Lacs+	4,53,354 4 Lacs+	11%
2	Veer Singh Dhingan	Shahdara	Seema Puri	AAP	40,00,000 40 Lacs+	6,50,490 6 Lacs+	16%
3	Virender Singh Kadian	New Delhi	Delhi Cantt	AAP	40,00,000 40 Lacs+	6,54,889 6 Lacs+	16%

Table: 3 MLAs with lowest election expenditure

6. Expense on Public Meeting, Rally, and Processions with Star Campaigners (other than those for general party propaganda): Out of the 69 MLAs analyzed, 50 (72%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on public meetings, processions etc. with star campaigners (other than those for general party propaganda) and 19 (28%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on public meetings, processions etc. with star campaigners (other than those for general party propaganda).

7. Expense on Public Meeting, Rally, and Processions without Star Campaigners (other than the ones with star campaigners of the political party): Out of the 69 MLAs analyzed, 67 (97%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on public meetings, processions etc. without star campaigners (other than the ones with star campaigners of the political party) and 2 (3%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on public meetings, processions etc. without star campaigners (other than the ones with star campaigners of the political party).

8. Expense on Campaigning through electronic/print media: 45 (65%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaigning through electronic/print media and 24 (35%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on campaigning through electronic/print media.

9. Expense on Campaign Workers: 46 (67%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign workers and 23 (33%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on campaign workers.

10. Expense on Campaign Materials: 42 (61%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign materials and 27 (39%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on campaign materials.

11. Expense on Campaign Vehicles: 61 (88%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign vehicles and 8 (12%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on campaign vehicles.

12. Expense on Virtual Campaign: 1(1%) MLA has declared that He has spent funds on virtual campaigns and 68 (99%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on virtual campaigns.

13. Expense on Publishing of Declaration Regarding Criminal Cases: Out of the 31 MLAs analysed with declared criminal cases, 29 (94%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on publishing of declarations regarding criminal cases and 2 (6%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on publishing of declarations regarding criminal cases.

Figure: Break Down of Elections Expenses Incurred by MLAs

Summary and Highlights of Sources of Funds Raised by MLAs in the Delhi Assembly 2025 Elections

Figure: Percentage Break-down of Funds Raised by MLAs

1. Percentage Breakdown of funds Raised by MLAs: Out of the total funds received by MLAs, 75% funds were raised from political parties, 11% were raised by MLAs themselves and 14% funds were raised from other sources.

2. MLAs Who Raised Funds from Political Parties: Out of the 69 MLAs analyzed, 55 (80%) MLAs have declared that they have received funds from political parties and 14 (20%) MLAs have declared that they have not received any funds from political parties.

3. MLAs Who Raised Funds through any person/ company/ firm/ associations/ body of persons etc as loan, gift or donation etc: Out of the 69 MLAs analyzed, 39 (57%) MLAs have declared that they have received funds from any person/ company/ firm/ associations/ body of persons etc as loan, gift or donation etc. and 30 (43%) MLAs have declared that they have not received any funds from any person/ company/ firm/ associations/ body of persons etc as loan, gift or donation etc.

4. Self-funds used for election campaign: Out of the 69 MLAs analyzed, 63 (91%) MLAs have declared that they have used their own funds for their election campaign and 6 (9%) MLAs have declared that they have not used any of their own funds for their election campaign.

Contact Details

Association for Democratic Reforms/National Election Watch/ Delhi Election Watch

Media and Journalist Helpline

+91 80103 94248

Email: a...@adrindia.org

Maj. Gen. Anil Verma (Retd)

Head

Association for Democratic Reforms,

National Election Watch

011 4165 4200,

a...@adrIndia.org,

anil...@adrindia.org