Saturday 11 October 2014 The Statesman 11-Oct-2014 Dainik Statesman 11-Oct-2014 Breaking News Page1One Modi rally cost R1.04 crore The Statesman11 Oct 2014 Tweet | First documented account comes from manipur YAMBEM LABA yambemlaba@gmail Imphal, 10 October All through the 2014 General Election, there was intense speculation on the money spent by the BJP on its campaign. Now from remote Manipur comes the first documented account of the cost of a single rally addressed by Mr Narendra Modi. His rally in Imphal on 8 February cost the BJP a whopping Rs 1.04 crore. This was not the largest or even the most impressive of Mr Modis rallies. It was just one of the 437 (a number attributed to party president Amit Shah in a news report) big rallies he held in the country in the build-up to the election. In all, Mr Modi was said to have participated in 5,827 public events. The Manipur rally claimed an attendance of 100,000, far smaller than some mega rallies held elsewhere. The expenses, according to the written claim lodged by the Manipur BJP president, Th. Chaoba Singh, with party headquarters were broken up as follows - (i) Expenses at the venue - Rs 42.6 lac; (ii) Advertisement and publicity - Rs 33.11 lac; (iii) Hotel stay for Gujarat Police personnel - Rs 1.17 lac; (iv) Transportation of workers - Rs 21.90 lac; (v) Mobilisation of minority, fishermen and other civil societies - Rs 2.70 lac and (vi) Production of documentary film - Rs 2.80 lac, making up a total of Rs 1,04,29,454. The BJPs central unit provided assistance of Rs 35 lac for the rally, while the state unit said it had raised Rs 43.80 lac through contributions from the public and state party leaders. Th. Chaoba Singh claimed the balance sum of Rs 25.49 lac came from the partys central office in a letter addressed to Mr Ram Lal, national general secretary of the party. Copies of the letter and the statement of account were also marked to Mr S S Ahluwalia, party vice-president and Mr Tapir Gao, the general secretary in-charge of Manipur. Both are available with The Statesman. Some of the major expenses were incurred on construction of stage - Rs 13 lac; construction and decoration of the gates - Rs 21.5 lac and hire of chairs and matting for seating - Rs 6 lac. Newspaper advertisements cost the BJP Rs 4.55 lac. The Manipur expense sheet raises obvious questions. If the rally in Imphal cost a little more than Rs 1 crore, how much did the BJP spend on Mr Modis 5,827 public events? How much more was spent on rallies addressed by other leaders? And how was it all funded? No wonder that the 2014 General Election was called the most expensive ever in Indias history.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 04:47:33 +0000
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