Manpreet Singh Ayali of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had incurred maximum expenses among elected MLAs of Ludhiana whereas Hardeep Singh Mundian of AAP had spent the lowest amount during 2022 Punjab assembly elections, a latest report released by Association for Democratic Reforms has revealed.

As per the report based on analysis of election expenditure statements of MLAs in Punjab assembly polls released by Association for Democratic Reforms, only one out of 14 MLAs from Ludhiana district had spent less than Rs 10 lakh in the elections. The report said all the MLAs have spent less than expense limit of Rs 40 lakh for the elections.

MLAs of Ludhiana district who spent more than Rs 20 lakh included Manpreet Singh Ayali (Rs 26,99,400), Daljit Singh Grewal (Rs 26,27,975), Gurpreet Bassi Gogi (Rs 26,03,016), Jiwan Singh Sangowal (Rs 25,30,829), Madan Lal Bagga (Rs 24,51,379) and Kulwant Singh Sidhu (Rs 22,95,284). With expenses of around Rs 27 lakh, Manpreet Singh Ayali is among the top 10 MLAs (at 8th spot) with highest declared election expenses in assembly elections.

The report said with spending of less than Rs 10 lakhs, Hardeep Singh Mundian is at number 111 among the 117 MLAs of the district.

The sub-category of the spending in elections by MLAS in the district revealed that Ludhiana West MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi had incurred highest expenditure by MLA/his election agent at Rs 19,97,082. MLA Gill Jiwan Singh Sangowal has incurred highest expenditure among Ludhiana district MLAs of Rs 18,04,453 on any other association/body of persons/individual whereas Payal MLA Manwinder Singh Giaspura and Samrala MLA Jagtar Singh had not incurred any expenditure under this sub-category.

ADR’s state coordinator Jaskirat Singh said expenditure is much higher as compared to the shown expenditure by MLAs. He said tracking and monitoring of expenditure is weak and election authorities need to make a foolproof mechanism for it. The ADR representative claimed that even as there is limit on spending in election for candidates, there is no so such limit for parties. He suggested that as party can spend to any extent in elections, the same is not added in candidate’s expenditure so it is meaningless to show such expenditure for candidates.