EC directive stumps Kutami

Hyderabad, April 10: The Election Commission’s instructions regarding election expenditure may pose problems to the candidates of the Mahakutami. As a show of unity, the top leaders of the Mahakutami — particularly the TD president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, and the TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao — have been extensively touring in constituencies allotted to allies.

The EC, however, specifies that the tour expenditure of the “leader” of a particular party should be added to the account of the candidate of the constituency (that is being toured by the former), if they do not belong to the same party.

As per rules, the travel expenses of the leaders whose names are intimated to the poll authorities in advance, will be exempted from the poll expenditure of the candidate.

The EC has given a clarification that when a leader of a party undertakes journey in connection with campaigning for a candidate who does not belong to that particular party, the benefit of exemption of travel expenses will not be available to that candidate.

“Thus, the expenditure in such cases would have to be booked to the account of the candidate concerned,” the EC said.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Dr I.V. Subba Rao said he would examine the EC directions.