Money still counts in polls

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Last elections, all the current MLAs from the district were passable examples of thrift as far as the Election Commission was concerned. Not one of the 14 crossed the election expense limit of Rs 16 lakh set by the Commission. They still proved that electioneering in a democracy can be an expensive business. You simply need lakhs to ensure you come out a winner.Together, the 14 MLAs spent over Rs 1.40 crore (Rs 1,40,28,562 to be precise) to win the masses over, going by the figures published by Election Watch, Kerala. CPM candidate B Sathyan, who won from Attingal, topped the list by spending Rs 13,80,620 or 86 percent of the ceiling. Varkala Kahar of the Congress is the austere MLA on the list. He spent only 44 percent or Rs 7,09,072. Sathyan, in fact, is third at the state-level and Kahar, a lowly 115.Transport Minister V S Sivakumar, who represents Thiruvananthapuram, is second on the list. He spent Rs 11,24,925 or 70 percent of the expense limit. Sivakumar is no. 27 in the statewide list.For the latest edition of the Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India had drawn sharp Lakshman Rekhas as far as the expenses were concerned. Teams of officials, armed with videography teams, had been rolled out to monitor the campaigning. In addition, all candidates were required to keep log books on expenses.Sivakumar aside, two others spent 70 percent of the expense limit - V Sasi of the CPI (Rs 11,24,438) and Koliakode Krishnan Nair of the CPM (Rs 11,17,741). Others, in the order of spending, are: N Shakthan, R Selvaraj, V Sivankutty, M A Vahid, K Muraleedharan, A T George, Palode Ravi, Speaker G Karthikeyan and Jameela Prakasam. Prakasam, the only woman MLA from the district, spent Rs 7,34,144 or 46 percent.K Muraleedharan and Palode Ravi also claim another distinction. They are among the handful of MLAs who declared very low spending on public meetings and processions. Muraleedharan spent only Rs 6,103 on such campaigns while Ravi spent Rs 7,735. And Adv B Sathyan, who topped the district list, is among the least tech-savvy MLAs and according to his declaration, he spent naught on campaigning through electronic and print media!