Not a penny spent
TVK contested 28 of the 30 Assembly seats in Puducherry, won two seats and forfeited its deposit in 15 seats. The party got a vote share of 17.6%, behind All-India N R Congress (40.96%), DMK (32.89%) and AIADMK (22.05%). The party reported no spending on candidates.
Chennai: TVK has spent nothing on its debut electoral contest in the Union territory of Puducherry , according to the expenditure statement submitted to Election Commission of India . “Vijay campaigned at three locations in Puducherry, but the expenses were not incurred by the party headquarters,” said a party source. The expenditure statement shows ‘nil’ under all major heads, including general party propaganda, travel, media advertisements, publicity material, public meetings and rallies.
TVK treasurer Venkataramanan submitted the statement to the commission on July 13. The party’s records show an opening balance of ₹3.02 crore and total receipts of ₹7.02 crore during the election. TVK in Tamil Nadu reported spending ₹19.87 crore.
No payment was made to other political parties towards election expenses, the statement said. There was zero expenditure on vehicles, social media campaigns and other campaigns by other means. TVK had contested alone in Puducherry.