With the Election Commission slapping a showcause notice on him for his poll expense remark, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Wednesday sought four more weeks' time along with reports of returning officer on expenditure incurred by him during 2009 parliamentary poll.
The EC had served a notice on Munde on June 29, asking him why he should not be disqualified for "suppressing and undervaluing" his poll campaign expenditure with his public admission of having spent Rs 8 crore over it.
Sources said the poll panel is likely to take a call in its meeting on Thursday, when the period of its notice is set to end, on whether to grant more time to Munde. The EC had asked Munde to explain within 20 days why action should not be initiated against him under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and why he should not be disqualified under the Representation of People Act for his "failure" to maintain a correct account of his election expenses.
The prescribed limit of poll campaign expenditure during the 2009 Parliamentary election was Rs 25 lakh.
Munde, who is an MP from Beed and BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, had on June 27 said during a book launch function in Mumbai that he had spent a whopping Rs 8 crore during his 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari.
The EC notice said, "The reasons for the said default should be explained by you in writing and your explanation should reach the commission within 20 days from the date of receipt of this notice. Incase, you fail to do so, within the time stipulated above, you will render yourself liable, without any further reference to you in the matter, for disqualification under section 10 A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951....for a period of 3 years from the date of order of the Commission...,"
The EC said that the election expenditure shown by Munde in the 2009 elections was only Rs 19,36,922. Munde, who claimed he spent over Rs 8 crore in the 2009 polls, has sought details along with copies of documents filed by the returning officer on his poll expenses.
