P K Basheer tops the list of election spending

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: P K Basheer who was elected from Ernad constituency and P K Kunhalikutty who won from Vengara constituency (both from IUML) were least interested in campaigning through electronic and print media during the Assembly elections. Despite this, both the leaders topped the list for maximum spending during the election campaigning. According to statistics released by the Election Watch Kerala apart from Basheer and Kunhalikutty, B Sathyan and T V Rajesh (both of the CPM) and Kovoor Kunjumon of the RSP were the five candidates who have not spent a penny for campaigning through electronic and print media.       The maximum expenditure of Rs 15.24 lakh was declared by Basheer followed by Kunhalikutty with Rs 14 lakh, Mons Joseph of Kerala Congress (Mani) with Rs 13.03 lakh, B Sathyan of the CPM with Rs 13 lakh  and V Sreyamskumar of Socialist Janata (Democratic) with Rs 12.97 lakh.  The five who had declared the lowest expenses are: K Kunhiraman (CPM, Rs 2.49 lakh), followed by Minister P K Jayalekshmi (Congress, Rs 3.96 lakh), K K Jayachandran (CPM, Rs 4.52 lakh), S Rajendran (CPM, Rs 4 lakh) and E Chandrashekaran (CPI, Rs 4.64 lakh). Based on the election expenditure declarations of 139 MLAs, the average amount of money spent by them in the elections is only about Rs 9 lakh, which is about 59 per cent of the expenditure limit, which  is Rs 16 lakh. The average election expenditure declared by MLAs party-wise is:  Rs 10.54 for IUML’s 19 MLAs,  Rs 10.04 lakh for 38 MLAs of the Congress, Rs 8.12 lakh for the 45 MLAs of the CPM and Rs 8.91 lakh for CPI’s 13 MLAs.  Only four MLAs have declared that they had spent more than 80 per cent of the amount permitted, which is Rs 13 lakh, and a total of 39 MLAs declared election expenses of less than Rs 8 lakh, which is less than 50 percent of the expenditure limit. On expenses for holding public meeting and processions, eight MLAs declared that they had spent less than Rs 10,000 and 54 MLAs declared that they had not spent any amount for campaigning through electronic or print media. Nineteen MLAs spent less than Rs 10,000 on the same.  The interesting fact is that 11 MLAs have declared that they have spent less than Rs 1 lakh on vehicle use and four MLAs spent less than Rs 50,000 on vehicle use.