Odisha MP Pushes For Capping Poll Expenses & Reduced Campaign Time [Watch]

Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Debashish Samantaray emphasised on capping election spending while speaking about electoral reforms on the floor of the Rajya Sabha.

Samantaray highlighted that election expenditure is rarely addressed, noting from his experience in multiple polls that actual spending far exceeds official limits, often reaching crores, which raises risks of post-election corruption to recoup costs. “…no one has spoken about election expenditure. I have fought five elections, within 14 days, the amount spent by a candidate is something obnoxious. Though there is a rule, a limitation to spending, everybody knows it is not true… You spend in crores,” he noted as the discussions resumed on Monday.

He suggested that the campaign time should be reduced to seven days. “Spending so much money, there is all chances of corruption for recovering money spent on election. For election reform, this should be considered. Not everyone has so much money to fight election,” he added.

Echoing the same, P P Suneer from the Communist Party of India (CPI) called for stricter controls on campaign spending to ensure fairness in elections. “Curb the role of money in politics through strict enforcement of expenditure limits, and by introducing state funding of elections as recommended by the Indrajeet Gupta Committee,” he said.

He also proposed tougher laws to combat the criminalisation of politics, and insisted on disqualifying candidates facing serious charges — particularly those involving grave offenses and hate speech — from contesting elections until acquitted by the courts.

BJD member Sasmit Patra, on the other hand, pushed for publication and authentication of real-time polling booth data. He proposed a unified reconciliation mechanism for conducting simultaneous elections, uniform reporting of voter turnout percentages during extended polling hours, and automatic dissemination of Form 17C and polling records to all relevant political parties.

Additionally, he called for complete matching of VVPAT slips with EVM counts at every polling station to build verifiable public confidence, along with time-bound resolution of election-related representations and objections.

Patra further recommended independent third-party audits of key electoral processes, pre-announced border management and inter-state coordination in vulnerable constituencies, enhanced training and oversight of polling staff to ensure voter secrecy and strict adherence to procedures, and the establishment of an integrated dashboard for election transparency.

During the discussion, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh proposed that lawmakers, who switch political parties, should be disqualified from contest elections for a period of six years. He also criticised the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as defective and possibly intended at depriving specific voters of their voting rights.

(With inputs from PTI)