Bhubaneswar, Feb 9: As the Panchayat Polls are approaching, the three major political parties are blaming each other for undertaking extravagant campaigning. But apart from all this blame game going on, one this is clear that there are loopholes in the guidelines set by the State Election Commission (SEC) on poll expenditures which are being blatantly exploited. As the poll expenditure limits are applicable to the candidates, it is not applicable to star campaigners of various parties and so parties in the state are blindly spending crores to woo voters in their favour. From Feb 4, the Odisha BJP’s star campaigners began their campaigning on helicopters for panchayats. Union minister Jual Oram, BJP legislature party leader KV Singhdeo, actress Pinki Pradhan and actor Sritam Das have taken the whirlwind visit to 12 places in 2 days. On February 7, Union Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan joined the campaigning spree by visiting various places on helicopter. From today onwards, another star campaigner of the party, Chhattisgarh CM, Raman Singh will begin his campaigning and will be flying over the Western Odisha. Similar arrangements have been made for Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das who will also campaign in the State. Thus as per estimations, a total of Rs 40 lakh every day is being spent on such lavish arrangements and is expected to go on till campaigning ends. Congress has alleged that both the BJD and BJP are spending a lot of money in campaigning. However, SEC secretary, Rabindranath Sahoo has said that there are restrictions on how many vehicles can be used by candidates and district party presidents. The collectors have been informed about the fact that the expenditures of the star campaigners will be borne by the party accounts.
