Candidates told to include paid-news in poll expenses

Tightening the noose around candidates over poll expenses, the Election Commission has directed them to maintain an expenditure register on a regular basis.

Tightening the noose around candidates over poll expenses, the Election Commission has directed them to maintain an expenditure register on a regular basis.

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Returning officer Kavita Singh has also told Bhagwant Mann of AAP, Vijay Inder Singla of Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa of SAD to include the paid news expenditure of Rs 22,232, Rs 18,526 and Rs 13,947, in their election expenses, respectively.

“We have now asked them to include their expenditures of social media and paid-news in the election expenditure,” she added.

Besides, on another notice of Rs 1.32 lakh issued to Vijay Inder Singla for the paid-news in two newspapers, Singla had filed an objection to the state-level media certification and monitoring committee to reconsider the decision of the district-level MCMC. Meanwhile, Kavita Singh has also issued another notice of Rs 47,000 to Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, SAD candidate from Sangrur, for violation of the code of conduct.