EC asks MNS to submit expense details as a party

PUNE: The state Chief Electoral Office, under the Election Commission, has asked the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to submit the expense details of party president Raj Thackeray’s election rallies separately as a “registered political party.”
Though the MNS did not contest in the Lok Sabha elections, Thackeray held at least 10 rallies last month.
“As a registered political party that had sought permissions from the election department for the rallies, the MNS should file the expense details as is the rule — even if the party does not have any candidate of its own in the race,” said additional chief electoral officer Dilip Shinde.
The BJP had written to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) with a question: ‘The MNS rally expenses will be added to which Lok Sabha candidate’s election expenditure account?’
Responding to the query, the CEO office said the MNS should file its own expenses and it would not be attributed to any candidate. “How can we attribute the MNS expenses to any candidate? There was no photo of any candidate displayed neither was there any mention,” the officer said.
The party will have to submit all the details of the expenses for the 10 rallies conducted last month during elections at the respective district election offices.
In his speeches, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, Thackeray had asked people to not vote for the BJP and its alliance partners. After the polls were announced, Thackeray’s first rally in Nanded received an unprecedented response. Senior BJP leader and school education minister Vinod Tawde had then urged CEO Ashwani Kumar to add the meeting’s expenditure to state Congress president and former CM Ashok Chavan’s account. Nanded is Chavan’s hometown and he is the Congress’s candidate from the constituency. Tawade had also said that the Congress should declare Thackeray as its “star campaigner.”
Political observers said it was a strange situation as Raj Thackeray himself is not contesting for any Lok Sabha seat and neither is any other MNS leader. Hence, the party expenses fell in a grey area. However, on Friday the CEO office cleared the confusion.
MNS starts preparations for assembly elections
Senior MNS leaders told TOI on Friday that they have already started gearing up for the assembly elections. The leaders said the party would field candidates from all the eight seats in Pune. “We have independently started our meetings ahead of the elections in October,” said a leader.