West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday
condemned the decision of the Union Cabinet to raise the expenditure ceiling of
candidates contesting Lok Sabha polls from Rs. 40 lakh to Rs. 70 lakh.
“I am not only
surprised but also shocked to see the attitude of the outgoing government on
such an important policy matter,” Ms. Banerjee, who is also the chairperson of
the Trinamool Congress, posted on her Facebook account. It is a long pending demand of her party for
State funding of election expenditure as part of its campaign for electoral
reforms.
Instead of considering it, the Centre had decided to raise
the level of poll expenditure of each Lok Sabha candidate, she said.
The decision would
encourage “more and more corruption and black money,” she noted. “The decision
will help the capitalist and large political parties who have enough money and
can always spend crores (of rupees) for their election,” she said. “What will
political parties with limited economic means will do in such a situation? The
decision will put poor political parties like us at a disadvantageous
situation,” she said. “It is shocking, shocking and shocking…I condemn, I
condemn and I condemn,” she added.
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