New Delhi:
The government today demanded that the Election Commission should take cognizance of BJP leader Gopinath Munde's comments that he had spent around Rs 8 crore in the last Lok Sabha elections against the prescribed limit of Rs 25 lakh.
"If Mr Munde has gone over the Rs 25 lakh limit, it is for him to explain to the Election Commission, and the Commission to take cognizance of it. If Mr Munde has said he has spent Rs 7 to 8 crores, it would be proper the Election Commission asks him. It is in the nation's interest, and the responsibility of the commission," Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said.
Mr Munde, an MP from Beed and BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, had yesterday claimed in Mumbai that Rs eight crore were spent during his 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign.
In his speech Mr Munde said, "I spent Rs 29,000 when I contested my first Assembly poll in 1980. Rs 8 crore were spent for my last (2009 Lok Sabha) election."
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari also were present at the function.