The CM Parkash Singh Badal and Rana Gurjit Singh Congress leader are the richest of all the 1,145 candidates who have contested in the Punjab assembly elections which were held on February 4. Around 80 candidates were found who have done paid news in campaigning for assembly elections.
Most of the candidates are from the prominent parties. In this list, Congress tops with its 30 candidates, 16 From SAD, 17 From AAP 4 from SAD- BJP alliance and 1 from BSP. In all the cases vernacular dailies have been found for publishing the paid news.
Yesterday MCMC of the Election Commission searched the newspapers daily and made the final list.
C Sabin additional chief electoral officer, Punjab said that the cost imposed will be included in the candidate’s election expenditure. And if in case any candidate proves that he did not pay for the news item which was shortlisted by the Election Commission then we will deduct the cost from the poll expenditure.
All those candidates who were found guilty have a chance to go in for an appeal. Congress leader Rana Gurjit was imposed with the cost of Rs 40,000 has submitted an appeal.Congress candidate Darshan Lal from Balachaur topped with Rs 1.5 lakh for two instances.
CM Badal was imposed a cost of Rs 24,000 by EC. Some of the sources said that a complaint was also filed against deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal. This complaint was found baseless upon scrutiny.
