EC slaps showcause notice on Munde for LS poll expense remark

BJP leader Gopinath Munde was today slapped with a showcause notice by the Election Commission which asked why he should not be disqualified for "suppressing and undervaluing" his poll campaign expenditure with his public admission of having spent Rs eight crore for it.
The EC has asked Munde to explain within 20 days why action should not be initiated against him under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and why he should not be disqualified under the Representation of People Act for his "failure" to maintain a correct account of his election expenses.
The prescribed limit of poll campaign expenditure during the 2009 Parliamentary election was Rs 25 lakh.

Munde, who is an MP from Beed and BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, had on June 27 said during a book launch function in Mumbai that he had spent a whopping Rs eight crore during his 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari were also present.
Munde bemoaned the increasing cost of contesting elections, saying, "I spent Rs 29,000 when I contested my first Assembly poll in 1980. Rs 8 crore were spent for my last (2009 Lok Sabha) election."
In its notice, the EC said, "The reasons for the said default should be explained by you in writing and your explanation should reach the Commission within 20 days from the date of receipt of this notice.

"ln case, you fail to do so, within the time stipulated above, you will render yourself liable, without any further reference to you in the matter, for disqualification under section 10 A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament or of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State or Union Territory for a period of 3 years from the date of order of the Commission declaring you to be so disqualified," the EC notice to him said.
The EC notice said that the election expenditure shown by Munde in the 2009 elections was only Rs 19,36,922.

"Whereas, it is evident from the above that, as per your own admission in public, you in fact spent Rs 8 crores as your election expenditure and thus, you did not maintain a true account of your election expenses as required under Section 77 of the R.P. Act, 1951 and, therefore the account lodged by you under section 78 of the R.P.Act, 1951, is not in the manner required by law," it said.