The Election Commission has advised BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde to be “mindful of his political discourse” in future in view of a controversy created by him on June 27 this year. During a book release function in Mumbai he reportedly said he had spent over Rs.8 crore towards his election expenditure whereas the permissible limit was only Rs.25 lakh.
“Having regard to the totality of the facts, circumstances of the case and submissions and admissions made by Mr. Munde in his petition in writing and the oral submissions made in person during the hearing, the Commission has decided to accept his explanation and drop the proceedings, against him under Section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” the Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath, said in its order.
The EC said it had taken into cognisance of Mr. Munde’s explanation that “the figure referred to in his speech was only illustrative in general terms and not an admission of his own expense.”
“He regretted that his… utterances created an ambiguity that might have led to the controversy in question, and assured [us] that he would be careful about his public utterances in future,” the EC said.
Mr. Munde was elected from Beed in Maharashtra in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll.
In its notice, the EC wanted to know why Mr. Munde “should not be disqualified under Section 10A of the RP Act, 1951 for your failure to maintain a true and correct account of your election expenses as required by law, for not lodging the true account of your election expenditure by suppressing/undervaluing the said expenditure, and thus having failed to lodge your account of election expenses in the manner required by law.”
Mr. Munde, in his election expenditure account, filed on June 8, 2009, had shown an expenditure of Rs.19,36,922.
