Poll spend quadrupled,aspirants relieved

Anita Landge,an aspirant for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation,was worried that she wont be able to reach out to voters.

Anita Landge,an aspirant for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC),was worried that she wont be able to reach out to voters. It is physically not possible to meet all the 17,000 voters. One has to rely on printed material that can be distributed to the public. But given the limited electoral budget for candidates,the number of pamphlets or information material one could print was also restricted, she said.

However,with their expenditure limit now being raised considerably,candidates no longer need to worry about reaching out to voters. In the last civic elections,candidates contesting PCMC polls could only spend Rs 1 lakh at the most. Now they can spend as much as Rs 4 lakh. This is a big relief for us. A candidate can meet only a third or at the most half of the voters in a ward. A candidate like me who is fighting a tough contest needs to spend a little more. The Rs 4-lakh norm will help all the candidates, said Landge,a candidate from open category panel in Kasarwadi.

Municipal commissioner Asheesh Sharma said the State Election Commission announced the Rs 4-lakh norm on the day it declared the date and code of conduct. For Pune and PCMC,I think the norm is Rs 4 lakh while for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),it is Rs 5 lakh, he said.

The earlier expenditure limit for candidates contesting elections to the BMC was Rs 1.35 lakh. The expenditure limit Thane,Nashik and Navi Mumbai civic bodies,too,has been raised to Rs 4 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.

The expenditure limit for those contesting the zilla parishad elections has been increased to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 60,000 and for panchayat samitis,it has been increased from Rs 40,000 to Rs 2 lakh. Civic officials said the Election Commission had increased the expenditure limit on July 30,2011,but came into effect now that civic polls are scheduled.

Candidates have been told to open new bank accounts from which they will spend on their campaigns. They will have to submit daily reports on the expenditure incurred by them to the returning officer by 2 pm the next day. A winning candidate will have to submit a report of her/his total election expenditure along with an affidavit to the civic body within 30 days of the announcement of election results. If s/he fails to do so,s/he will be disqualified.

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Poll spend quadrupled,aspirants relieved

Anita Landge,an aspirant for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation,was worried that she wont be able to reach out to voters.

Anita Landge,an aspirant for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation,was worried that she wont be able to reach out to voters.