Gandhinagar: Gujarat government is likely to spend the RS 450 Crore to conduct a ‘free and fair’ assembly selection scheduled to be held at the end of this year.
This number is estimated expenditure issued by official institutions in conducting elections and not including costs to be made by political parties and candidates.
According to the source, the total expenditure that will be spent on the selection of Gujarat Assembly 2022 will be more than RS 1,000 Crore.
As a practice, the Office of the Head of the Head of the Head of the State asked the state government to make budget provisions in a year when Lok Sabha or the assembly selection was carried out.
Actual costs usually exceed the temporary allocation carried out in the budget, said source.
“For the election of assembly of 2022, we have asked the Gujarat government to make RS 387 Crore provisions in the state budget for 2022-23.
For the election of assembly 2017, the provisions of the RS 250 Crore are made according to the budget, but actual expenditure turns RS 326 Crore,” the official source said , adding, “against the main estimation of RS 387 Crore, actual expenditure to carry out assembly selections 2022 can touch Rs 450 Crore.” The cost of remuneration of selection staff, logistics, vehicles, increasing polling booths and the like has increased substantially since 2017.
Temporary estimates Including additional financial burdens for enforcing the Covid-19 protocol, “said the source.” If we have to enforce the Covid-19 protocol in the 2022 election, many more booths, staff, and other resources must be allocated, encourage further expenditure.
New cost estimates will be possible only before elections, and current estimates have been carried out by the assumption of the normal election process, “said the number around RS 175 Crore has been spent by the Indian Election Commission (ECI) to conduct a 2012 assembly election in Gujarat.
In 2017, Actual expenditure increased to RS 326 Crore which is now pegged to cross the crore rs 450 Per candidate expenditure has increased from Rs 28 Lakh to Rs 40 Lakh.
There is no limit to expenditure by any political party for their candidates.