Most parties want poll expenditure limit raised, AAP differs

Most political parties today favoured raising the ceiling for Lok Sabha election expenditure, arguing that steep inflation has made the current slab of Rs 16-40 lakhs infeasible.
The meeting called by the Election Commission to take views of the parties before it comes out with details also saw most political parties opposing any move to bring election manifestos under the Model Code of Conduct.
"Political parties almost unanimously requested for an upward revision in the limits of election expenses in view of the rise in price index," the Commission said in a statement.
"BJP is for taking into account the rising cost of everything over the years," party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters after the meeting.

Though Congress representatives, who attended the meeting were not available for comment, sources said they spoke in support of raising the cap.
However, Aam Aadmi Party said it was happy with the current limits.

"We think the expenditure slab for Lok Sabha polls is appropriate and political parties can fight elections adhering to the limit as we did in Delhi elections," Pankaj Gupta of AAP said.
BJP urged the commission to complete elections in as few phases as possible and argued against holding polls in May in big states like UP and Bihar where weather would become very hot.
CPI said freebies should be banned as they are nothing but allurement for voters.

The Left party's Amarjeet Kaur said the present rules barred any allurement to people to get votes and offering freebies was nothing but an allurement.
Many of the parties favoured banning opinion polls, the EC said. BJP, though, said it was opposed to any such move.
A few parties mentioned the need for transparency in corporate funding and monitoring expenditure of political parties incurred even before announcement of elections, the Commission said, adding that some parties urged it to review the transfer of officials by state governments in the run-up to elections.
Many parties requested for relaxation in the matter of use of posters, flags among other things for cost effective campaign, it said.