Naik spent Rs 18 lakh on poll campaign, highest in North Goa

Union minister Shripad Naik, who contested the North Goa Lok Sabha seat as a BJP candidate, spent Rs 18.07 lakh on his poll campaign, highest among all the contestants from the constituency, an election official has said.

In all, six candidates were in the fray from the North Goa seat, polling for which was held on April 23.

Naik contested from this seat for the fifth time.

Congress candidate Girish Chodankar spent Rs 12.84 lakh on poll campaign, a statement issued on Thursday by the Chief Electoral Office said.

AAP candidate Pradeep Padgaonkar, who was also in the race, spent Rs 3.41 lakh, while independent candidate Amit Korgaonkar incurred an expenditure of Rs 43,354, it said.

Two others- Bhagwant Kamat and Aishwarya Salgaonkar- who contested as independent, spent Rs 25,000 and Rs 38,420 respectively, the statement added.

District Election Officer has said that the accounts were cross checked with the shadow observation registers (SOR) maintained by the assistant expenditure observers.