Owaisi 52 lakhs, Mahua Moitra 75 lakhs… Which leaders got how much money to contest Lok Sabha elections?

In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) has spent a lot of money. Not only TMC, Aam Aadmi Party, Congress and AIMIM have also spent generously on candidates.

According to the TMC’s expenditure statement submitted to the Election Commission on June 7, the party has spent Rs 3.60 crore to contest the elections. The party had given Rs 75 lakh each to 48 party candidates, including Abhishek Banerjee, Mahua Moitra and Shatrughan Sinha, to contest the elections.

TMC had fielded most of its candidates from West Bengal. Some of the party’s candidates contested from Assam and Meghalaya. Let us tell you that TMC had contested all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal while it won 29 seats.

Aam Aadmi Party spent more than Rs 60 lakh on the election of its three candidates in the Lok Sabha elections. Two of these candidates of Aam Aadmi Party contested from Delhi while one candidate contested from Gujarat. The party gave almost half of the amount of Rs 60 lakh to Chaitrabhai Vasava to contest the election from Bharuch in Gujarat.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) gave a total of Rs 52 lakh in two installments to party president Asaduddin Owaisi to contest the elections. Although there is a limit on the expenditure of a candidate on election campaign, there is no such limit for political parties.

Congress has told the Election Commission that it gave Rs 70 lakh each to Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayanad and Rae Bareli. Let us tell you that Rahul Gandhi won both the seats. However, he finally left the Wayanad seat while retaining the Rae Bareli seat. The party had won 99 seats in the parliamentary elections, out of which Rahul won two seats.

In January 2022, based on the suggestions of the Election Commission, the government increased the expenditure amount for candidates to contest elections from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 95 lakh, while the expenditure for contesting assembly elections was increased from Rs 28 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.

The amount to be spent for Lok Sabha elections has now been increased to Rs 90 lakh in big states while in small states it is Rs 75 lakh. Let us tell you that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases and the results will be announced on June 4.