Rahul Gandhi got 1.40 crore and Digvijay got 50 lakh, this is the amount Congress gave to the leaders to contest elections

Congress has given details of how much money it spent on which Lok Sabha candidate in the recently held Lok Sabha elections-2024. The party has given its details to the Election Commission. 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.

According to the agency, the highest amount from the party fund in Congress was given to Vikramaditya Singh (Rs 87 lakh). However, he lost to BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut from Mandi seat of Himachal Pradesh. According to the information given by the party to the Election Commission, other leaders who received Rs 70 lakh include Kishori Lal Sharma, who defeated former BJP MP Smriti Irani.

Anand Sharma got this much money

The Rs 70 lakh list includes KC Venugopal (from Alappuzha in Kerala) and Manickam Tagore (from Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu). Congress candidates Radhakrishna (from Gulbarga in Karnataka) and Vijay Inder Singla (from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab) were also given Rs 70 lakh each. Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Digvijay Singh (both lost the election) were given Rs 46 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively.

The limit of expenditure has been increased on the recommendation of the Election Commission

Actually, there is a limit on the expenditure of a candidate in election campaign, but there is no such limit for political parties. In January 2022, based on the recommendation of the Election Commission, the government had increased the limit of election expenditure for candidates for Lok Sabha elections from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 95 lakh and for assembly elections from Rs 28 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.

Different thresholds for large and small states

The revised expenditure limit for the Lok Sabha elections is different for large states and different for small states. Let us tell you that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases and the results were declared on June 4. Last month, the Congress submitted its ‘partial election expenditure statement’ to the Election Commission for the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. This statement was related to the ‘lump sum amount’ given by the party to the candidates to contest the elections.