'IUML candidates spent most money on poll campaign'

The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second biggest party in Kerala's ruling United Democratic Front, spent the most money on the campaign of its candidates in the April 13 assembly polls, an election watchdog said Saturday.

The IUML on an average spent Rs.1,054,247 on the election campaign of its 19 candidates who won the polls, said a report by Election Watch Kerala, the state chapter of National Election Watch, which analysed the expenditure of 139 of the total legislators.

Kerala went to the polls on April 13 and the votes were counted on May 13.

The Congress came second in poll spending, each of its 38 legislators spending on an average of Rs.1,004,103.

For the 45 Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislators, the average expense was Rs.812,140, and the Communist Party of India (CPI) spent Rs.891,566 on each of its 13 legislators.

The maximum amount that a candidate can spend for the election campaign was fixed at Rs.1.6 million by the Election Commission.

The analysis also revealed that the IUML's first-time legislator P.K.Basheer, son of former minister late Seethi Haji, spent the maximum on his campaign - Rs.1,524,665. He was followed by his party's P.K.Kunhalikutty (now the industry minister) with Rs.1,399,784. In third place was first time CPI-M legislator B.Sathyan, who spent Rs.1,380,620.

On the other hand, K.Kunhiraman (CPI-M) spent the least - Rs. 249,667 - on his campaign, followed by the Congress' P.K.Jayalekshmi with Rs.396,581.

Another interesting fact that has come out is that eight legislators have spent less than Rs.10,000 on public meetings and processions during the election campaign.

As many as 39 legislators said that they have not spent any money on election campaign workers, while 13 have recorded that their expenditure on this count was less than Rs.10,000.

As per the guidelines laid out in the Representation of Peoples Act, any citizen can file a complaint against the declared expenses within 15 days of the last date of filing of election expenses.

“Since the last date of filing of expenses was June 13, we are releasing them now (before the June 28, which is the last date for filing complaints) to provide this information to the public on time,” said Sudhir Kumar, secretary, Election Watch Kerala.

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