Press Release: Analysis of Election Expenditure statements of MLAs from the Puducherry Assembly Elections 2021

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Press Release

Date: June 29, 2021

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. Puducherry Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analyzed all 30 election expenditure statements submitted after the Puducherry Assembly Election 2021 for newly elected MLAs. The expenditure limit for the MLAs during the Puducherry Assembly elections was Rs. 22.00 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 and expense on campaign materials.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/puducherry-assembly-elections-2021-analysis-election-expenditure-statements-mlas

Recommendations:

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 Puducherry Assembly Elections being the 1^st June 2021. 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.
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.
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 10. 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 Puducherry Assembly 2021 Elections

1. Less than 50% of the Limit: Out of 30 MLAs analysed, 25 (83%) 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 30 MLAs from Puducherry Assembly, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is Rs 7.30 lakhs, which is 33% of the expense limit.

3. Party-wise Average Election Expenses: The party wise average election expenses shows that the average spending for 10 MLAs from All India N.R. Congress is Rs6.20 lakhs (28.2% of the expense limit). For 6 MLAs from DMK, the average election expenditure is Rs7.08 lakhs (32.2% of the expense limit), the average election expenditure for 6 MLAs from BJP is Rs.9.16 lakhs (41.7% of the expense limit), the average election expenditure for 2 MLAs from INC is Rs.9.52 lakhs (43.3% of the expense limit) and 6 Independent MLAs have spent Rs. 6.76 lakhs (30.7% 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
S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Expense Limit (Rs.)	Total expenses incurred (Rs.)	% of limit reached
1	P.R.N. Thirumurugan	Karaikal	Karaikal North	All India N.R. Congress	22,00,000 22 Lacs+	15,47,783 15 Lacs+	70%
2	P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram	Puducherry	Kalapet	BJP	22,00,000 22 Lacs+	14,49,833 14 Lacs+	66%
3	Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok	Puducherry	Yanam	IND	22,00,000 22 Lacs+	13,80,615 13 Lacs+	63%

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
S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Expense Limit (Rs.)	Total expenses incurred (Rs.)	% of limit reached
1	M. Sivasankar	Puducherry	Ozhukarai	IND	22,00,000 22 Lacs+	2,17,632 2 Lacs+	10%
2	J. Prakash Kumar	Puducherry	Muthialpet	IND	22,00,000 22 Lacs+	**2,46,716 2 Lacs+	11%
3	Annibal Kennedy	Puducherry	Oupalam	DMK	22,00,000 22 Lacs+	3,08,984 3 Lacs+	14%

Table: 3 MLAs with lowest election expenditure

**on total expenses value indicates that the MLA has not provided the total in their affidavits, it has been calculated on the basis of details provided by them in the same

6. Expense on Public Meeting, Rally, and Processions with Star Campaigners: Out of the 30 MLAs analyzed, 17 (57%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on public meetings, processions etc. with star campaigners and 13 (43%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on public meetings, processions etc. with star campaigners.

7. Expense on Public Meeting, Rally, and Processions without Star Campaigners: Out of the 30 MLAs analyzed, 21 (70%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on public meetings, processions etc. without star campaigners and 9 (30%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on public meetings, processions etc. without star campaigners.

8. Expense on Campaigning through electronic/print media: 7(23%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaigning through electronic/print media and 23 (77%) MLAs have declared that they have not spent any funds on campaigning through electronic/print media.

9. Expense on Campaign Workers: All 30(100%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign workers.

10. Expense on Campaign Materials: 29(97%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign materials and only 1(3%) MLA has declared that he has not spent any funds on campaign materials.

11. Expense on Campaign Vehicles: All 30(100%) MLAs have declared that they have spent funds on campaign vehicles.

Figure: Break Down of Elections Expenses Incurred by MLAs

Summary and Highlights of Funds Raised by MLAs in the Puducherry Assembly 2021 Elections

Figure : Percentage Break-down of Funds Raised by MLAs

1. Percentage break-down of funds received by MLAs: Out of the total funds received by MLAs, 14% funds were raised from political parties, 15% were raised by MLAs themselves and 71% funds were raised from other sources.

2. MLAs Who Raised Funds from Political Parties: Out of the 30 MLAs analyzed, 6 (20%) MLAs have declared that they have received funds from political parties and 24 (80%) 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: All 30(100%) MLAs have declared that they have received 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 30 MLAs analyzed, 17(57%) MLAs have declared that they have used their own funds for their election campaign and 13(43%) MLAs have declared that they have not used any of their own funds for their election campaign

5. Average funds raised from Political Parties (Party-wise): On an average a MLA from DMK raised 74.91% and on an average a MLA from BJP raised 71.15% of his/her election expense funds from the political party.

6. Average funds raised through any person/company/firm/associations/body of persons etc as loan, gift or donation etc (Party-wise): On an average a MLA from INC raised 68.12% of his/her election expense funds from any person/company/firm/associations/body of persons etc. as loan, gift or donation. Similarly, a MLA from All India N.R. Congress MLAs raised on an average 12.70% of their expense funds from any person/ company/ firm/ associations/ body of persons etc. as loan, gift or donation.

Contact Details

Puducherry Election Watch

P. Joseph Victor Raj

State Co-ordinator

+91 94860-86938

vrhope@gmail.com

National Election Watch/Association for Democratic Reforms

Media and Journalist Helpline

+91 80103 94248

Email: a...@adrindia.org

Maj.Gen. Anil Verma (Retd)

Head