LS poll spending remark:EC to issue notice against Gopinath

The Election Commission (EC) is likely to issue a notice against senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde after he stoked a controversy by his candid admission about spending Rs 8 crore on his 2009 Lok Sabha campaign.

Munde had on Thursday also openly dared the Election Commission to act against him for his remark and sought state funding of elections to check use of black money.

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"I spent Rs 29,000 when I contested my first Assembly poll in 1980. But had to spend Rs 8 crore for my last (2009 Lok Sabha) election," Munde, BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, had said at a book release function on Thursday in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari.

I hope no Election Commission official is present among the audience. Even if an Election Commission authority is present, six more months are to go for the Lok Sabha polls. Even if a case is filed, so be it," he had said.

Reacting to the BJP leader's remarks, Maharashtra Home Minister had demanded that the poll panel take note of it and decide whether such candidates should be allowed to contest in future.

The Union Law Ministry had in February 2011 raised the maximum limit on expenses that can be incurred by a candidate contesting Lok Sabha poll from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.