Hyderabad: The disqualification by the State Election Commission (SEC) came as a jolt to 1,570 candidates in Telangana. The SEC has disqualified 1,570 candidates from contesting in ZPTC and MPTC elections. These candidates were disqualified for a reason that non-submission of election expenditure in the previous election.

According to SEC notification, 291 candidates have been barred from contesting Zilla Parishad Territorial Council (ZPTC) and 1,279 candidates were disqualified from contesting Mandal Parishad Territorial Councils (MPTCs).

In the notification, the SEC said that “about 1,570 candidates have been disqualified for not submitting their expenditure details pertaining to the previous elections within 45 days after the polling day.”

The contesting candidates are supposed to file their expenditure reports either to District Collector and the SEC. After winning the election also, ZPTCs and MPTCs didn’t bother about submitting their expenditure report.

This time, the SEC has doubled the expenditure limit for local body elections. The SEC has put a threshold on expenditure limit at Rs4 lakh for ZPTC candidate and Rs1.5 lakh for an MPTC candidate in the forthcoming elections.

Going by the expenditure details submitted to the SEC, the average poll expenditure in the previous local body elections was Rs60,000 for MPTC and Rs1.5 lakh for ZPTC candidate.