BJP’s Mahesh Sharma of Noida tops election campaign expenditure list with ₹43 Lakh

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Dr Mahesh Sharma has spent the most on the election among the list of candidates contesting from the Gautam Budh Nagar parliamentary constituency.

According to administration officials, Sharma spent ₹42,68,888 as election expenditure till April 8.

Congress’s Arvind Singh spent ₹35,68,831 on the election-related expenditure while the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP)-Samajwadi Party(SP) candidate Satveer Nagar spent ₹24,73’275 till April 8.

13 candidates are in the fray in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections from the constituency which went to poll on April 11.

A naturopath, Rodash Gupta from Khurja had also contested in the election and spent ₹32,57 on his campaign. Gupta claimed that he could have spent little more but he did not get required permissions for campaigning from the officials concerned.

Gupta has also complained to the Election Commission of India against the officials for not awarding him the permissions on time. “I had applied for permissions to hold nukkad(street) meetings, to put banners and for many other things but I got all the permissions on April 7 which was anyway very late but I still tried doing whatever I could. I got the permission to open my election-related office on April 7, giving me only two days to open it,” said Gupta, who fought as an independent candidate.

“On April 7, I got the permission to put a banner and to distribute pamphlets. I gave both the things for printing on April 7 and got it on April 9. With this kind of delay, how am I expected to win or to even spend money on campaigning? I have been a district secretary for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishva Hindu Parishad. They knew that I could cut into the BJP votes so they ensured that I didn’t reach out to people. I had approached the ECI and only after that I got the permission on April 7,” Gupta added.

Another independent candidate, Dayaram, who also is a Khurja resident and works as a daily wage electrician spent ₹31,000 on the campaign. “I had raised ₹31,000 with crowdfunding for my campaigning. I am happy that I, at least, tried to contest in the Lok Sabha elections,” Dayaram said.

In 2014, Dr Mahesh Sharma (BJP) won the seat defeating Narendra Bhati (SP) by 2,58,871 votes. In the 2009 general elections, Surendra Singh Nagar (BSP) had won the seat by 15,904 votes, defeating Sharma.