Election expenditure limits
Topic: Electoral Reforms: Money, Criminalisation and Simultaneous Elections · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Election and Representation"
Meaning
Election expenditure limits are legal ceilings on how much a candidate may spend on a campaign. They come from Section 77 of the RPA 1951 and Rule 90 of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, and the ECI enforces them.
- From 2022, the Lok Sabha limit is ₹95 lakh in larger states and ₹75 lakh in smaller ones.
- The assembly limit is ₹40 lakh or ₹28 lakh.
A candidate must file accounts within 30 days of the result (Section 78). Failing to file can bring three years' disqualification (Section 10A). There is no cap on party spending. In Kanwar Lal Gupta (1974), the Court had counted party spending as the candidate's. Parliament then added Explanation 1 to Section 77, which undid this.
Example
A Lok Sabha candidate in a big state can spend up to ₹95 lakh. The party, however, can spend any amount on rallies and ads for that candidate.
Don't confuse with
- Star campaigner expenses: travel costs of named party leaders are not added to the candidate's account at all.
Related concepts
- Money power in elections
- Star campaigner
- Section 29C of the RPA 1951
- Section 13A of the Income Tax Act 1961
- Cash donation limit
- Corporate donations to political parties
- Foreign funding of political parties
- Electoral trusts