MP Congress urges ECI to add poll spend by BJP candidates in their election expenses

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The Madhya Pradesh Congress has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to include the election expenses of 39 BJP candidates, whose names have already been announced for the upcoming assembly polls in the state. The Congress delegation, led by Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, met with Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and submitted their suggestions to the ECI, PTI reported.

In their letter of suggestions, the Congress claims that the elections are already overdue, and only the model code of conduct needs to be implemented. However, they allege that the Chief Minister, other ministers, MLAs, and leaders of the ruling BJP are interfering in government work. They further assert that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is campaigning in favor of the declared BJP candidates at government expense.

The BJP has already declared 39 candidates even before the announcement of polls, but Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is campaigning in favour of them on government expenses, the Congress leader further claimed while sharing details of their demands.

The government functions being organised in favour of the declared BJP candidates should be stopped and the expenditure being made by the party should be added in their poll expenses, Dhanopia said.

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He said the Congress also gave a number of other suggestions, including the announcement of results in constituencies where candidates win by a margin of less than 1,000 votes only after counting twice.

In the 2018 assembly polls in MP, the Congress won a maximum of 114 seats in the 230-member House. The BJP won 109 seats.

The Congress formed a coalition government under Kamal Nath with the support of SP, BSP and independent candidates.

However, the Nath government collapsed after 15 months when a section of Congress MLAs quit and joined the BJP.

The saffron party returned to power in March 2020 with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister. (With inputs from PTI)