Election expenses: Yogish Bhat, Lobo spent highest in DK

BJP's Ranjan Gowda spent a sum of Rs 11.54 lakhs, the second highest amount that was spent by a candidate in the elections.

Once the counting of votes is done, each candidate is obliged to submit the details of his expenditure within a month of the announcement of election results. Out of the total 71 candidates who had contested for the elections, only two of them have not declared the expenditure details.

With the results of the elections being announced on May 8, the last day to have submitted the declaration of expenditure was June 8. A total of 69 candidates submitted their expenditure details to the Election Commission.

JD(S) candidate who had contested from Mangalore North constituency Ghulam Mohammed and Republican Party of India candidate from Bantwal Lolaksha are the two who have not declared their expenditure. The District Returning Officer has sent a report to the Chief Election Commissioner on this regard.

Expense limit of Rs 16 lakh

While the Election Commission has imposed an upper limit of Rs 16 lakh for the expenditure of each candidate, there are candidates who have spent more for the sake of winning in the elections. The cost of campaigning including the rent of vehicles, printing of pamphlets, brochures, tour of leaders, publicity, advertisements in the media and snacks, submitted by the candidates is well within the upper limit of Rs 16 lakhs.

Modi publicity during elections

In the publicity programme organised for Narendra Modi in Nehru Maidan, the costs have exceeded a sum of Rs 3.4 lakhs, which was shared by the BJP candidates in their expenditure list.

In Bantwal, Congress candidate B Ramanath Rai submitted details of expenses worth Rs 8.40 lakhs while his opponent Rajesh Naik spent Rs 6.97 lakhs during elections.

According to the list of candidates' expenditure, it was Moideen Bava who spent the second highest sum of Rs 9.76 lakhs among Congress candidates.