Candidates in Mumbai appear to have held on tight to the strings of their purses during poll campaigning for the first time as the Election Commission maintained a close watch on expenditure of political parties and candidates in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

 

Candidates across party lines and also independent candidates avoided spending lavishly on poll campaigning while only ensuring that they covered every area through padyatras and motorcade procession winding through the constituency.

 

According to the Shadow Observation Register Book maintained by the Election Commission, till Sunday last, in South Central Mumbai, Aditya Shirodkar of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) spent Rs 23,08,000 on poll campaigning, while Eknath Gaikwad of the Congress splurged Rs 28,74,000 and Rahul Shewale of the Shiv Sena spend Rs 29,75,000 on poll campaigning, respectively.

 

In South Mumbai, till April 15, 2014, Milind Deora of the Congress incurred an expenditure of around Rs 15 lakh on campaigning and Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena spent Rs 12.57 lakh while Bala Nandgaonkar of MNS splurged only Rs 11.07 lakh on campaigning since the election code of conduct came into effect on March 5, 2014.

 

In South Central Mumbai apart from the Congress, Sena and MNS, there are an additional 12 more candidates in the poll fray and the maximum spent by one of these 12 independent candidates was only Rs 25,000 while 9 others did not spend a single rupee on campaigning. However, these 9 candidates have yet not been considered as dummy candidates. Former banker, Meenal Sanyal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had spent around Rs 12.82 lakh on campaigning till Saturday last.

 

In South Mumbai, excluding the candidates contesting on the Congress, Sena, MNS and AAP ticket, there are 10 candidates from various lesser known political parties and of independent status. One of the independent candidates has spent Rs 83,000 on poll campaigning while 2 other candidates choose not to spend on campaigning.