EC notice to Chavan on poll expenses

Showcause could pave the way for his diqualification as MP and bar him from contesting polls for three years

The showcause notice issued by the Election Commission of India (EC) to Ashok Chavan, former chief minister of Maharashtra, has dampened the mood among his followers.

One of only two Congress members to the new Lok Sabha from that state, his camp was jockeying for the coming  legislative assembly election. There was a move to have him made campaign committee chief. The action has also depressed his party, gloomy at its prospects after a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha poll.

The notice is for alleged failure to register his poll expenses during the 2009 poll. Chavan told Business Standard, “I welcome the EC order. I will reply to the notice.”

Chavan is one of those accused in the Adarsh housing society scam. He’d got his Lok Sabha nomination at the final hours, being then elected from Nanded.

The EC order came on the complaint of former Maharashtra minister Madhavrao Kinhalkar,  defeated by Chavan from Nanded in 2009, and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The complainants said Chavan had not included the expenditure for 25 advertisements in Marathi newspapers in his poll accounts.

Party leaders fear Chavan’s  disqualification will adversely impact their poll prospects, apart from losing the Lok Sabha seat. A senior minister, close to Chavan, admitted the order was a major setback. “Chavan and Rajiv Satav, elected from Hingoli, saved the party from a total washout in the Lok Sabha poll,” he noted. And, said there was no leader of Chavan’s stature to replace him in the Marathwada region’s 46 assembly constituencies.

“There is still hope that the EC accepts Chavan’s representation and gives him a clean chit,” he said.