File photo of polling in Chhattisgarh
Eighteen confirmed cases of paid news -- articles or reports for which candidate is believed to have paid the newspaper -- were detected in the Chhattisgarh during the campaigning for the just-concluded Assembly polls.
As per the office of Chief Electoral Officer, 37 cases of paid news were reported. Of this, 18 instances were confirmed as paid news by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee formed by the Election Commission.
The highest number of confirmed cases was reported in the Naxal-affected Bastar district (nine). EC authorities added a total of Rs 50,137 to the election expenditures of BJP and Congress candidates on account of publication of favourable news articles.
Rs 38,596 were added to election expenses of BJP's candidate from Jagdalpur constituency Santosh Bafna for favourable articles in certain dailies, they said.
Rs 5,802 were added to the Congress's Shamu Kashyap from the same seat for paid news in a daily and a weekly, they said.
Bastar constituency witnessed one case of paid news and Rs 4,839 added to the election expenditure of Congress' Lakheshwar Baghel for a report in his favour in a newspaper, the CEO's office said.
Four confirmed cases of paid news were found in Dantewada and Durg districts, and one in Bilaspur district.
In Durg, the EC has directed to add Rs 15,650 to the election expenditure of Congress's Arun Vora, the son of AICC treasurer Motilal Vora. Four confirmed cases of paid news were detected in Dantewada of south Bastar, they said.
Rs 4,472 were added to the election expenses of BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi in Dantewada constituency for three cases of paid news, while Communist Party of India's Bomdaram Kawasi was found to have got published a favourable report too, for which Rs 8,505 were added to his electoral expenses, they added.
For a single case of paid news, around Rs 11,000 were included in the poll expenditure of minister Amar Agrawl, who is a BJP candidate from Bilaspur seat.
Joint Chief Electoral Officer D D Singh told PTI that if the poll expenditure of a candidate exceeds the limit of Rs 16 lakh now, he or she can be disqualified.