A clerical error, and party funds that weren’t

The whole controversy over the two BJP MLAs spending more on their elections that the maximum limit permitted by the Election Commission came down to a clerical error in the case of one of the MLAs, and mis-classification of the funds spent by the party in the case of another.

A recent report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had found that MLA from Himmatnagar, Rajendrasinh Chavda, and Santrampur (ST) seat MLA Kubersinh Dindor, had spent Rs33.78 lakh and Rs28.95 lakh respectively in their election bid in the recent assembly elections. However, a scrutiny of the abstract of election expenses reveals that both candidates had spent less than Rs28 lakh, the maximum expenditure allowed.

According to a senior official, in Chavda’s case, the higher expenditure was due to a clerical error. All candidates are required to submit details of expenditure incurred by them or their agent, their party, and any other individual or body in Columns 3, 4 and 5 respectively of the astract statement. The total expenditure has to be mentioned in Column 6. However, Chavda mentioned the total expenditure in Column 3, details of Column 3 in Column 4, and so on.

“The candidate made a mistake by showing his …read more