Other candidates' poll expense much beyond Rs 70 lakh: Mayank Gandhi

Mumbai: AAP leader Mayank Gandhi, who is contesting polls from the North West Mumbai Lok Sabha seat, has alleged that the poll spending of the candidates from his rival parties was much beyond the Rs 70 lakh limit as set by the Election Commission.“Candidates fighting polls from other parties are using money power, which is dangerous for the democracy. They are spending beyond Rs 70 lakh specified limit. This over spending is affecting other parties like ours,” Gandhi said during a press conference here yesterday. However, he denied of having any proof about this. “We do not have any proof. A large amount of money is being given to party workers in cash and it is a common practice. We do not need to give any evidence,” he said. Gandhi said that the manifesto of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be out by next week.“Our national manifesto is being shared with the stakeholders. We will unveil our national manifesto next week. We will also bring out a Mumbai-centric manifesto soon,” the 55-year-old social activist said.For the North West Mumbai seat, Gandhi is locking horns against the sitting Congress MP Gurudas Kamat, MNS candidate Mahesh Manjarekar and Gajanan Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena.He claimed that as per an internal survey, he was in favourable position over other contestants. “From an internal survey that we have done, I am ahead of my competitors by atleast 1,00,000 votes. More than half of the people we spoke to, favoured the Aam Aadmi party over other candidates,” he said.When asked about Bollywood superstar Salman Khan extending support to senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamat, the AAP leader said that there are many others who support his party as well.“If Salman Khan supports Gurudas Kamat, I have no problem with it. There are many others who are supporting my party. In the last 5 years, Kamat has not done any work in his constituency,” he said.On the Marathi votebank, Gandhi said he is confident of support from Marathi population in his constituency. “We thought that Marathi votes will mostly go to the Shiv Sena and the MNS, but we are seeing good support from Marathi speaking population also. Maybe after Balasaheb Thackeray, they are not feeling the same connect with Shiv Sena,” Gandhi said.Taking a dig at actress Rakhi Sawant, who is contesting the polls from the same constituency as his, Gandhi said, “I don't know who will vote for her (Rakhi Sawant) in the first place but those people certainly won't vote for me. None of her actions can prove that she will get any votes in this election,” he said.Rakhi Sawant is contesting the election as Rashtriya Aam Party candidate, floated by her.Replying to a query on Kamal Khan's candidature from the Samajwadi Party for the North West seat, he alleged, “Kamal Khan had posted derogatory tweets about women, Mulayam Singh, Abu Azmi and Azmi's daughter-in-law. Such type of candidates are not good for democracy,” he said.