Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi along with party President Mallikarjun Kharge
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Congress gave its top leader Rahul Gandhi Rs 1.4 crore -- Rs 70 lakh each for Wayanad and Rae Bareli -- to meet campaign expenses for Lok Sabha elections while Samajwadi Party handed over Rs 60 lakh to its chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rs 72.15 lakh for his wife Dimple Yadav to fight from Kannauj and Mainpuri respectively.
Trinamool Congress gave Rs 75 lakh each (or a total of Rs 36 crore) to all its 48 candidates in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya while DMK gave Rs 70 lakh each (total Rs 15.40 crore) to all its 22 candidates in Tamil Nadu.
These details are in the 'Part Election Expenditure Statements' related to Lok Sabha elections submitted by various parties in the past couple of months and made public by the Election Commission. The BJP's statement of expenditure is not available on the EC website and it is not clear whether it has already submitted it.
Congress transferred Rs 70 lakh to Rahul for Wayanad seat on April 12 while another Rs 70 lakh was transferred for expenses in Rae Bareli on May 4. Rahul won both the seats and decided to retain Rae Bareli.
For a single constituency, Congress transferred the highest amount of Rs 87 lakh to Himachal Pradesh Minister Vikramaditya Singh, who unsuccessfully contested from Mandi against actor-turned BJP leader Kangana Ranaut. The party also gave Assam's Dhubri candidate, Rakibul Hussain, Rs 75 lakh.
Leaders who got Rs 70 lakh each from Congress included Kishori Lal Sharma, who defeated Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi, K C Venugopal (Alappuzha in Kerala) and Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu), Radhakrishna (Gulbarga in Karnataka) and Vijay Inder Singla (Anandpur Sahib in Punjab).
Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who fought from Rajgarh, got Rs 50 lakh while Anand Sharma who contested from Kangra got Rs 46 lakh. Both were defeated in the election.
Samajwadi Party gave Rs 49.10 crore to its candidates, including Akhilesh and Dimple. SP's star winner Awadesh Prasad got Rs 20 lakh from his party to fight Faizabad, where Ayodhya is located.
For Lok Sabha elections, the election expenses ceiling for candidates is Rs 95 lakh for all states except Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim, whose ceiling is set at Rs 75 lakh. Among union territories, the ceiling is Rs 95 lakh in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir while it is Rs 75 lakh for the rest.