The expenditure limit for the candidates during the West Bengal Assembly elections 2016 was Rs.28 lakhs. West Bengal Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have come forward with their analysis of all the election expenditure statements submitted after the Assembly elections for 294 MLAs.
Candidates have constantly claimed that the election expenditure limit set is very low. However, based on the election expense declarations of all 294 MLAs analysed from the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections to the CEO, 162 MLAs (55%) have declared election expenses of less than 50% of the expense limit in their constituency.
Based on the election expense declarations of 294 MLAs from West Bengal Assembly to the CEO, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is only about Rs. 13.39 lakhs, which is 48% of the expense limit.
According to a release by the ADR, the party wise average election expenses shows that the average spending for 211 MLAs from AITC isRs. 13.57 lakhs (49% of the expense limit), for 44 MLAs from INC is Rs. 17.57 lakhs (63% of the expense limit), for 26 MLAs from CPI(M) is Rs. 7.19 lakhs (26% of the expense limit), and for 3 MLAs from BJP is Rs. 17.10 lakhs (61% of the expense limit).
The maximum expense of aboutRs. 25.52 lakhs (91% of the expense limit) has been declared by Apurba Sarkar of INC from Kandi constituency followed by Rajib Banerjee of AITC from Domjur constituency with an expense of Rs.25.33 lakhs (or 90% of the expense limit) and Firdousi Begum of AITC from Sonarpur Uttar constituency with an expense of Rs. 24.91 lakhs (or 89% of the expense limit).
Based on the election expense declarations of all 42 Ministers analysed from West Bengal
Assembly, 2016 to the ECI, 22 Ministers (52%) have declared election expenses of less than 50% of the expense limit in their constituency.
