Congress Poll Expense: Mandi Candidate Got Highest; Rahul Gandhi Rs 1.40 Cr

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from both Wayanad and Rai Bareilly constituencies, was given Rs 70 lakh for each by the party. The Congress party recently revealed the data to the Election Commission of India, and a total of Rs 1.40 crore was given to the former Congress president for election expenditure. He was the star campaigner for the recently held general elections, and won both the constituencies.

The Congress leader won both the seats he contested and retained Uttar Pradesh’s Rai Bareilly while leaving his former constituency, Wayanad. Rahul Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka Gandhi, was declared the party’s candidate for Wayanad byelection, which will be held soon. During the 2019 general election, Rahul Gandhi had contested from his then sitting seat, Amethi and Wayanad, which ended up him losing the long-held Uttar Pradesh seat. This time the Congress leader chose to contest from Rae Bareli, a party fortress vacated by his mother Sonia Gandhi before the elections.

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Notably, Rahul Gandhi was not the person who received the highest amount from the party for elections. It was Vikramaditya Singh, who contested from Mandi constituency in Himachal Pradesh and lost the poll, who was given Rs 87 lakh, the highest amount a candidate received for contesting elections. BJP’s actor-politician Kangana Ranaut defeated the Congress candidate by over 70,000 votes in Mandi.

Several other leaders have also received the same amount as Rahul Gandhi, Rs 70 Lakh,  for the election, and the names include Kishori Lal Sharma, who defeated BJP’s sitting MP Smriti Irani, K C Venugopal (Alappuzha in Kerala), and Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu). Radhakrishna and Vijay Inder Singla are Congress candidates from Gulbarga in Karnataka and Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. All of them received Rs 70 lakh for the poll expenses.

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The government had increased the election expenditure limit for candidates to Rs 95 lakh from Rs 70 lakh for Lok Sabha elections and to Rs 40 lakh from Rs 28 lakh for assembly elections in 2022.