Civic election: Poll panel doubles expenditure limit for candidates

The state election commission on Wednesday doubled the expenditure limit for campaigning for candidates who wish to contest the upcoming civic polls in Uttarakhand.

There are 92 urban local bodies in the state, 86 of which are set to undergo polls in the month of April. The last local body polls in the state were held in April 2013.

According to a letter issued by the election body on Wednesday, the limit for mayoral candidates in municipal corporations has been increased from ₹8 lakh to ₹16 lakh.

For the post of deputy mayor, the cap has been upped from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh while for corporators, the limit now stands at ₹2 lakh from the previous ₹1 lakh.

Similarly, for municipal councils, the chairman candidates will now be able to spend up to ₹6 lakh from the earlier cap of ₹3 lakh.

Those contesting for ward members in municipal councils will be able to spend up to ₹60,000 against the previous limit of ₹30,000.

In case of nagar panchayats, those contesting for the chairman post will now be allowed to spend a maximum amount of ₹2 lakh unlike ₹1 lakh in the past. For ward members, the limit has been raised from ₹15,000 to ₹30,000.

It is worth recalling that during an all party meeting called by the election panel on January 5, representatives of various political parties had demanded that the maximum expenditure limit be increased for various candidates.

“It’d been over five years since the last instructions were issued (for fixing expenditure limits for civic polls). Following due deliberations, the decision has now been taken to revise the expenditure limits for candidates contesting for various posts in urban local bodies,” state election commissioner Subardhan said on Wednesday.