Chandigarh, February 11
The Election Commission’s refusal to take any cognisance of the appeal filed by the Congress over expenses incurred on holding election rallies of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, has put the party candidates in a jittery.

“We have nothing to do with the appeal filed by the Congress,” says Chief Election Commissioner, Mr Gopalaswamy, holding that Section 77 of the People’s Representation Act is very clear. It says that in case of national parties, if they nominate up to 40 national leaders within seven days of the opening of filing of nomination papers, expenses incurred on election rallies of such leaders shall not be calculated towards election expenses of the candidates concerned.

But, in the case of the Congress, the letter giving list of 40 leaders was delivered to the Election Commission on February 4. Though it was dated January 27 and sent through a courier company, it was received in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Chandigarh on February 2.

It may be mentioned here that the Congress list did not include the name of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who addressed four election rallies in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Ludhiana.

Since the list was received in the Election Office after January 27, the Commission did not take notice of it and forwarded the actual position to each of 20 Expenditure Observers on election duty in Punjab.