BJP leader Gopinath Munde on Monday said that he is not worried by the Election Commission’s notice to him regarding the election expenditure incurred by him and he will reply to the notice within four days.
“I have received the EC notice and I will send my reply within four days. I am not worried about the notice so there is no need for others to worry about it,” Mr Munde said.
However, he did not make any comment about the demand made by the Congress and the NCP to disqualify him as Member of Parliament.
Speaking at a function last week, in the presence of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Mr Munde had admitted to spending `8 crores during the 2009 election campaign.
The maximum that a candidate is allowed to spend is `40 lakhs. Mr Munde further said that it did not matter if the Election Commission took cognisance of his admission because only five-six months were left in his tenure.
The Congress and the NCP have sought Mr Munde’s disqualification because of his admission, but his supporters have hailed him for speaking the truth. The BJP’s alliance partner Shiv Sena also came in Mr Munde’s support on Monday.
The editorial published in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana asked the Congress and the NCP whether they used tamarind seeds instead of money during the election campaigns.
“The elections in India have become a tamasha of money. If we want to know how democracy is sold, we have to look at elections from gram panchayats to Lok Sabha… Mr Munde has shown the courage to speak the truth... Some people are trying to corner Mr Munde by pressurising the EC to take action against him. It is our fortune that they are not demanding that Mr Munde should be hanged,” the Saamana editorial said.
The editorial further said that Mr Munde has only pointed out the truth that today our country finds itself in a vicious circle of power and money.
Further, taking on the NCP, the Saamana editorial said, “It is a joke that the NCP leaders are demanding action against Mr Munde for spending beyond the prescribed limit. Did they fight elections by spending less than `40 lakhs. Did R.R. Patil abide by the spending limit when he won election from Tasgaon in Sangli?”