Actor-legislator M. Mukesh, who is embroiled in a Malayalam film industry sexual harassment saga, was given the highest amount to fight the recent Lok Sabha (LS) elections among all left party candidates by his party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].
According to the Part Expenditure Statement submitted to the Election Commission of India by the CPI(M), Mr. Mukesh was given ₹79 lakh to fight elections from Kollam Lok Sabha constituency, a contest which he lost to N.K. Premachandran.
In Kerala, the candidate to get the second highest funding from the party was V. Joy who contested from Thiruvananthapuram and got ₹49 lakh.
Mr. Mukesh is a two-term MLA from Kollam Assembly segment.
Anticipatory bail plea
An FIR has been registered against him on Thursday under Section 376 (rape), which is a non-bailable offence, Section 354 (assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty), and 509 (insult the modesty of a woman by word, sound, gesture or object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The District and Sessions Court, Ernakulam, has directed the investigation officer not to arrest him till September 3 following an anticipatory bail plea moved by the actor.
The Part Election Expenditure Statement showed that R. Sachithanantham, who won from Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul, was the closest to Mr. Mukesh in terms of getting funds directly from the party at ₹70.63 lakh.
In total, the CPI(M) gave ₹4.12 crore to its candidates in Kerala, ₹2.21 crore in West Bengal, and ₹1.07 crore in Tamil Nadu. In Karnataka, CPI(M) gave its Chikkaballapur candidate M.P. Munivenkatappa ₹16.40 lakh.
The election expenses ceiling for candidates has been revised by the Centre in January, 2022. As per the revised ceilings, the maximum limit of election expenses for a Parliamentary Constituency is ₹95.00 lakh per candidate for all States, except Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, and Sikkim. For these three States, it is ₹75.00 lakh per candidate.
For Union Territories (UT), the maximum limit for NCT of Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir is ₹95 lakh per candidate; and ₹75 lakh per candidate for other UTs.
