54 lakh campaigning cap on Lok Sabha candidates

CHANDIGARH: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has fixed Rs 54 lakh as the amount for campaigning for each candidate contesting the

Lok Sabha

elections from Chandigarh.


The UT election department has constituted a six-member expenditure monitoring team comprising

finance

and accounts experts to monitor the expenditure of candidates as well as parties, believing that restricting them to the fixed expenditure limit a major challenge.

A 12-member flying squad team, static surveillance teams and three exercise teams besides police personnel would work simultaneously to restrict any illegal or unlawful activities during the election period.

"Though the teams have been constituted and they have started their work on ground, their real job will begin from the day of nomination. This is when candidates and political parties will start organising rallies and spending money in a big manner on campaigning," said a senior officer of the election department. "The special expenditure team and others during this period will aggressively move from one place to another to monitor and check if the rules are not being flouted," he said. The official said since during the peak campaign period, candidates and parties hold major rallies and make expenditure, details of each event, rally and programme would be prepared and matched with the details furnished by the candidates.

The election department has already issue a rate list of over 100 items from eatables to others to be used by political parties during campaigning. The election department finalised the rates of items after holding meetings with the representatives of political parties.