Thaindian News

Mumbai, Jan 3 (IANS) Maharashtra’s state Election Commission Tuesday significantly enhanced the expense limits for the forthcoming civic, zila parishad and gram panchayat elections.

The decision was announced by state election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan after she announced the schedules for the zila parishad and gram panchayat (Feb 7) and civic bodies poll (Feb 16), across the state.

For the A-grade Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the expense limit has been hiked from Rs.135,000 to Rs.500,000. Each candidate in B-grade corporations like Pune and Nagpur will now be able to spend Rs.400,000 from the existing limit of only Rs.100,000.

For C-grade municipal corporations like Thane, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the limit has been increased from Rs.100,000 to Rs.400,000.

Similarly, it will be Rs.300,000 (from existing Rs.100,000) in D-grade civic bodies like Ulhasnagar, Solapur, Akola and Amravati.

In the Zila Parishad elections, a new expense limit, from existing Rs.60,000 to Rs.300,000 has been allowed while for Gram Panchayat Samitis, it has been upped from Rs.40,000 to Rs.200,000.

In yet another major relief, the travel expenses of important leaders or star campaigners would not be included in the election expenses of the candidate for whom they campaign during the elections.

All contesting candidates would be required to submit the day’s expense accounts related to polls and campaigning by 2 p.m. the following day.