Lucknow, 01 April: In the Lok Sabha elections-2024, every candidate will have to submit the account of his election expenses to the District Election Officer within 30 days of the declaration of the results.
It is noteworthy that in case of failure to file the account of election expenses within the prescribed time limit without any concrete reason, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will issue orders to the concerned candidate under Section 10 (a) of the Representation of the People Act-1951. Can be declared disqualified for 03 years from the date of admission.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said on Monday that under Section 77 (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for every candidate of Lok Sabha or Assembly, from the date of his nomination till the date of declaration of the election result. It will be mandatory to maintain separate and correct accounts of all the expenses incurred by the company.
He said that the expenditure incurred by the candidate during the election should not exceed the amount prescribed under Section 77(3) of the Public Representation Act-1951. At present, the maximum limit of election expenses for each parliamentary constituency of the state is fixed at Rs 95 lakh and for each assembly sub-constituency, the maximum limit is Rs 40 lakh. Expenditure by candidates in elections in excess of the prescribed limit comes under the category of corrupt practices under Section 123(6) of the Public Representation Act.
He told that such a candidate can be disqualified for 03 years from the date of issue of order by the Commission under Section 10 (a) of the Public Representation Act 1951 and can be punished with fine under Section 171 (a) of the IPC. Can also be punished. In case of expenditure exceeding the limit of election expenditure, if found guilty of corrupt conduct under Section 8A of the Public Representation Act, he can be disqualified by the High Court for 06 years and the concerned election can also be cancelled.
According to the updated list of the Samprati Commission, 121 persons from the state of Uttar Pradesh have been debarred from contesting the elections.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that the rates of various materials related to election expenses have been determined unanimously by every District Election Officer of the state by meeting with the representatives of various political parties, which are available in the District Election Offices. On the basis of the above prescribed rates, the expenditure is recorded in the shadow dispatch register maintained for the candidates in the district election offices.
Rinwa told that as per the instructions of the Commission, three dates are fixed between nomination and voting date for inspection of election expenditure accounts of the candidates by the Returning Officer and Expenditure Observer, in which the daily expenditure account register is maintained by the candidate himself or through his agent on the fixed dates. It is mandatory to get it inspected. If a candidate does not submit his daily expenditure account register to the inspection office for inspection on the due date, then a notice will be issued by the Returning Officer that the expenditure account should be submitted within three days. If the candidate still does not get his daily expenditure account register inspected, then the permission given to that candidate for the use of vehicles will be withdrawn by the Returning Officer.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that a system has been developed by the Election Commission of India to monitor the candidates and political parties, which includes expenditure observers, assistant expenditure observers, video monitoring team, video observation team, accounting team, complaint monitoring control room and call center. Media Certification and Monitoring Committee, Flying Squad and Static Surveillance Team as well as various enforcement agencies of Central and State Government like Police, Excise, SGST, Forest, GRP and Income Tax, Narcotics, CGST, RPF, SSB, CRPF, Civil Aviation, Post Monitoring work is being done through office, RBI etc. Whatever interception and seizure is done by these enforcement agencies during the election period, it is being continuously reported on the portal Election Seizure Management System (ESMS) developed by the Commission.
