BJP workers and supporters participate in bike rally during campaigning for BJP MLA candidate for Jayanagar As... Read More

NEW DELHI: BJP has argued for doing away with cap on election expenditure saying it only encourages caste-based politics besides being meaningless in view of provision of electoral bonds , which mandates disclosure of all contributions exceeding Rs 20,000, thus making funding transparent.

“Campaigns led by the political parties are based on vision documents. If this is limited in any sense, it would certainly encourage politics based on caste and individual influence. Therefore, the EC may moot for better transparency than limit the expenses,” BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav wrote to the panel that had sought views of political parties on poll reforms, including funding.

The ruling party suggested since all contributions above Rs 20,000 are being reported now, it might well be left to the candidates and political parties to report their sources of funding and expenditure.

“Political parties mobilise funding on the basis of their support base and membership Corporate, high net worth individuals) and crowd funding is a consequence of their voter base. Hence, there is no reason to introduce any cap on such collection or expenditure,” BJP said.

The saffron party received the lion’s share of corporate donations recently, lapping up Rs 705.81 crore of Rs 2,987 corporate donors between 2012-13 and 2015-16.

The party says the ceiling on election expenditure of a party should be discussed widely, keeping in view factors like number of candidates, social-political dynamics, geographical area of the state or constituencies, density, numbers of rallies proposed etc. “In fact, some of unrealistic appropriation of expenses to the candidate account needs to be revisited,” the party said.

BJP said campaigns political parties encourage and influences voters to participate in the elections, another reason to avoid putting a cap on poll expenditure. BJP suggested EC should consider promoting maintenance and lodging of election expenses accounts of contesting candidates in civic elections.

The party has also suggested making a pan-India initiative to link voter registration to Aadhaar and that the voter slip should not be treated as identity proof.

