Strict monitoring has taken the fizz out of electioneering

Video cameras, shadow register keep tab on candidates

UNDER WRAPS: The board of a trade union covered with plastic sheets in Tiruchi. Photo: M. Moorthy

Never had been the roads so clean, devoid of arches, hoardings and cut-outs. Even the walls are free of graffiti and posters. The aged and the students have been spared the blaring of loudspeakers. Not many vehicles, with fluttering flags, cruise through bustling traffic.

In short, any visitor to cities would wonder whether the election campaign is under way.

A host of teams, video surveillance and the shadow observation register, introduced to monitor the election expenditure, have brought about a sea change in electioneering this time.

The reason: every political party is conscious of the “third eye” watching every minute movement of the candidates and every rupee they spend on electioneering.

“Gone are the days, when we simply forwarded the affidavit on election expenditure filed by the candidates, with no questions asked, to the Election Commission. When the ceiling on expenditure was Rs.10 lakh, the expenses statement hardly went beyond Rs.5 lakh. The statements of many candidates claimed that their expenditure was only in thousands of rupees,” an official involved in election work said.

“Though the account of election expenditure is required to be submitted within 30 days from the date of the declaration of the result, the monitoring has to be done on a regular basis during the campaign period for it to be of any use. After the campaign is over, it will be difficult to get any evidence of election expenditure,” says the Instructions on Expenditure hosted in the Election Commission of India website.

Video surveillance teams, expenditure monitoring teams, static and flying squads, video viewing teams and Assistant Expenditure Observers are there to assist the Expenditure Observer to keep a tab on the election expenses.

The expense statement of the candidate is periodically reviewed. “Any lapse in accounting is corrected then and there,” the official said.

The stringent monitoring has, in fact, taken away the pomp and fun involved in electioneering. The only extravaganza is a band of three or four persons playing musical instruments. The candidates' convoy has got only one four-wheeler – an open jeep – and the supporters have switched over to two-wheelers for door-to-door campaign.

“Any over-spending above the stipulated Rs.16 lakh, if proven, could lead even to disqualification of the candidate,” an EC official said.