New Delhi:
The Election Commission feels that Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Goa may pose problems on use of money power in the upcoming Assembly elections.
"We feel that Punjab and Uttar Pradesh will give us problems on the money front. And so will Goa, because money plays a big role," Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi told PTI in an interview, when asked if EC foresees problems in any of the poll-bound states.
Already, the Commission's fears are turning true with huge caches of money being recovered in the states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. So far, as much as Rs 7.5 crore has been seized from Uttar Pradesh and a similar amount of cash has been recovered from Punjab.
The CEC said the Commission will also keep a tab on paid news during polls, besides also on the television channels and newspapers owned by various political parties and account for the expenses incurred on election campaigns for candidates of their respective political party.
"We are aware that political parties have their own channels and newspapers. This is also disturbing the model code and level playing field," said Quraishi.
"After Tamil Nadu, we have now prepared our guidelines for channels owned by political parties themselves. We will count the number of hours on TV and space given in newspapers and see their rate cards and then divide it among the total number of candidates for which the campaigns are done," he said.
The CEC said unfortunately there is no cap on expenditure of political parties during polls, but the expenses incurred by them would be added proportionately to the candidates' expenditure.
"We feel that Punjab and Uttar Pradesh will give us problems on the money front. And so will Goa, because money plays a big role," Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi told PTI in an interview, when asked if EC foresees problems in any of the poll-bound states.
Already, the Commission's fears are turning true with huge caches of money being recovered in the states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. So far, as much as Rs 7.5 crore has been seized from Uttar Pradesh and a similar amount of cash has been recovered from Punjab.
The CEC said the Commission will also keep a tab on paid news during polls, besides also on the television channels and newspapers owned by various political parties and account for the expenses incurred on election campaigns for candidates of their respective political party.
"We are aware that political parties have their own channels and newspapers. This is also disturbing the model code and level playing field," said Quraishi.
"After Tamil Nadu, we have now prepared our guidelines for channels owned by political parties themselves. We will count the number of hours on TV and space given in newspapers and see their rate cards and then divide it among the total number of candidates for which the campaigns are done," he said.
The CEC said unfortunately there is no cap on expenditure of political parties during polls, but the expenses incurred by them would be added proportionately to the candidates' expenditure.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
