Vikrant Shekhawat : Aug 30, 2024, 12:59 PM
Rahul Gandhi News: In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Congress party gave Rs 70 lakh each to its top leader Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayanad and Rae Bareli. This information has been given by the party to the Election Commission, according to which Rahul Gandhi received a total of Rs 1 crore 40 lakh.In this election cycle, the Congress also provided a lot of financial support to some prominent leaders. The highest recipient of funds among the candidates contesting from the parliamentary constituency was Vikramaditya Singh, who received Rs 87 lakh, but he faced defeat against BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut from Mandi seat in Himachal Pradesh.Other prominent Congress leaders were also given similar amounts. KC Venugopal and Kishori Lal Sharma received Rs 70 lakh each. Kishori Lal Sharma defeated BJP's Smriti Irani from Amethi, while Venugopal emerged victorious from Alappuzha in Kerala. Similarly, Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu) and Radhakrishna from Gulbarga in Karnataka and Vijay Inder Singla from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab were also given Rs 70 lakh each.Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Digvijay Singh received Rs 46 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively but lost the electoral contests. Rahul Gandhi won from Wayanad as well as Rae Bareli but later quit the Wayanad seat. He is now the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Congress had won a total of 99 seats.Taking note of the limit on election expenditure, the Election Commission had in January 2022 recommended that the expenditure limit for candidates for Lok Sabha elections be raised from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 95 lakh, while for assembly elections it was raised from Rs 28 lakh to Rs 40 lakh. Now, the expenditure limit for Lok Sabha elections has been fixed at Rs 90 lakh for bigger states and Rs 75 lakh for smaller states. The elections were held in seven phases and the results were declared on 4 June.