The Election Commission’s decision to hike the ceiling on election expenditure of a candidate from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh with effect from this Lok Sabha election, seems to have made no much difference to the candidates in Dakshina Kannada constituency.

Going by the ‘accounted expenditure,’ none of the candidates in the constituency have crossed the previous ceiling, let alone the revised one. According the shadow register maintained by the Election Expenditure Observer of the district, the maximum expense borne by a candidate is Rs 36.59 lakh, as on April 15.

Congress candidate B Janardhan Poojary tops the list by spending the above  amount, while his opponent Nalin Kumar Kateel from the BJP, follows him with an expenditure of Rs 28.27 lakh.

Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate M R Vasudeva stands in the third position by incurring an expenditure of Rs 12.23 lakh and he is closely followed by Bahujan Samaja Party (BSP) candidate Moosa Kunhi with Rs 10.20 lakh expenditure in his account. The candidate to spend least on campaigning and publicity is Independent candidate Subramanya who has incurred an expense of Rs 25,000.

The shadow register has been prepared after tabulation and accounting of expenditure incurred by candidates for election-related activities such as rallies, road shows, advertisements and publicity materials.

No escape from rallies

Despite the political big wigs trying their best to avoid the expenditure added to their account, Janardhan Poojary and Nalin Kumar were not completely successful in their attempt. For instance, Poojary had to incur the expenditure of Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Mangalore. Though Poojary avoided sharing the dais, the expenditure of Rs 6.98 lakh was added to his account as Rahul Gandhi sought vote in his name.

Likewise, the expenditure of Nalin Kumar Kateel is likely to increase by Rs two to three lakh, once the Deputy Commissioner who is also the District Election Officer decides on adding the expenditure of Narendra Modi’s programme in Kasargod, to Nalin’s expenditure account. As Nalin had shared the stage with other dignitaries in the Kasargod programme, the Election Observer sought the expenditure account of the programme from the Kasargod Returning Officer. The total expense will be shared by Nalin Kumar and the BJP candidate for Kasargod.

Compared to the expenditure of 2009 parliament election, both Poojary and Nalin have witnessed a considerable increase in their expenditure. In the last election, Nalin had topped the expenditure list by spending Rs 17.05 lakh, while Poojary had spent merely Rs 10.50 lakh.

Shadow register vs candidate’s register

The expenditure monitoring committee had verified the accounts of the candidates thrice before the election, the last being on April 15. The shadow register maintained by the expenditure observer is verified with that of the register maintained by the candidate and loopholes are found out. The final expenditure list will be announced by the district election officer within one month of the vote counting day.

Assistant Expenditure Observer Krishnaprasad who performed his duty till the election day, told Deccan Herald that the candidates normally agree with the shadow register and do not jump into an argument with the observer. Except an independent candidate Maxim Pinto, all other candidates have produced their account before the observer on April 15. Notice has been served to the one who failed to make it, he said.

Candidates vs Expenditure

Candidate                                     Party            Expenditure in Rs

Janaradhana Poojary          Congress                      36,59,274
Nalin Kumar Kateel              BJP                               28,27,248
M R Vasudeva                          AAP                                 12,23,592
Moose Kunhi                           BSP                                10,02,009
Mohammed Haneef              SDPI                                   9,66,948
Yadava Shetty                        CPI (M)                            6,97,095
K N Somashekhar                  Independent                 1,44,112
Deepak Rajesh Coelho        Ind                                       74,575
K Kushala Bellare                   Ind                                         64,300
Maxim Pinto                            Ind                                       58,738
Sudatta Jain                              Ind                                          36,143
Supreeth Kumar Poojari     HJP                                     28,284
Ananda Gatty                            Ind                                         27,750
Subramanya                            Ind                                       25,000