Munde turns daredevil with polls around the corner

Mumbai, June 28: Senior BJP leader and deputy leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha

on Thursday admitted in public that he had spent Rs 8 crore on his election campaign in the 2009 parliamentary polls, a number far exceeding the official limit of Rs 40 lakh.

Munde, who was speaking at a function at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), even dared the Election Commission by saying that he did not care if he was removed out of the Parliament because of this as fresh polls were less than a year away. The EC monitors the candidates' expenditure.

However, its rule that a candidate can spend a maximum amount of Rs 40 lakh on campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections is considered to be a invitation to breach of law for the amount is far too low.

The main speaker at the BSE programme was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke on governance.

Munde, a senior BJP leader from Maharashtra, said while referring to the use of unaccounted money in elections that he had spent just Rs 29,000 in his first election but the electoral affairs have become so expensive nowadays that his poll expenditure shot up to Rs 8 crore in 2009.

He said he didn't care for the EC for even if the latter disqualified him on this count, it wouldn't matter much for the next Lok Sabha polls are less than a year away from now.

Munde also said how corruption is rising in the society since politicians require funds to contest polls. The man, considered an arch-rival of former BJP president Nitin Gadkari in the state politics, said Modi was always his idol and rued that Maharashtra was lagging behind for it did not have a leader like Modi. He said Modi never takes money from anybody and neither lets anybody else in his government do that. "He is a real hero," Munde said.

OneIndia News