Rahul Gandhi and Aassan Maulaana (File Photo)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has disqualified former Velachery MLA and Congress candidate JMH Aassan Maulaana from contesting elections for three years for failing to lodge a true and correct account of his election expenses during the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.
The ECI said, “Aassan Maulaana failed to lodge a true and correct account of his election expenses within the time and manner prescribed by law”.
An order issued under Sections 77 and 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the ECI held that Maulaana had failed to account for expenditure incurred on newspaper advertisements published during his campaign.
Congress candidate Maulaana had declared his total election expenditure at Rs 17,03,548. During scrutiny, however, the Chennai district election authorities found that advertisements published in 10 newspapers had not been included in his account.
The District Election Officer (DEO) and the Returning Officer issued a notice to him on March 30, 2021, asking whether the advertisements published by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) in the 10 newspapers were meant to promote his election.
In his reply dated March 31, 2021, he denied that the advertisements were authorised by him and said the TNCC had borne the expenses independently.
The DEO and Expenditure Observer found that the advertisements prominently carried Maulaana’s name, photograph and the Congress party’s hand symbol, besides an appeal to voters to support the “Velachery Congress candidate Aassan Maulaana JMH”.
The symbols of other parties in the alliance did not figure in the advertisements.
As per the Gazette notification, the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) had earlier estimated the cost of the advertisements published on March 27 and 28 at Rs 31,53,975, based on the rates of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations and with the approval of the Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu.
The DEO consequently calculated that Rs 32,05,915 spent on the newspaper advertisements had been understated in Maulaana’s election expenditure account.
In its meeting on April 2, 2021, the District Election Monitoring Committee (DEMC) recommended that this amount be included in Maulaana’s election expenditure account, citing observations of the Supreme Court in Kanwar Lal Gupta vs Amar Nath Chawla & Ors and Election Commission guidelines.
During its second meeting on June 2, 2021, the panel finalised the total understated amount at Rs 32,05,915, including an additional Rs 51,940 towards the advertisement published on April 3. The DEO subsequently asked Maulaana to submit his response in this regard.
The ECI accepted the finding and held that the expenditure should have been included in the candidate’s account. This would have taken his total election expenditure to Rs 49,09,463, well above the prescribed ceiling of Rs 30.80 lakh for an Assembly constituency.
Exercising its powers under Section 10A read with Sections 77 and 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the ECI declared Maulaana disqualified for three years from August 19, 2026. This means he will be barred from being chosen as, or being, a member of either House of Parliament or of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a state or Union Territory during the period.
It is learnt that Maulaana was called for multiple hearings in January and February to explain the discrepancies but failed to appear before ECI officials. The ECI concluded that he had deliberately withheld the true accounts and breached election law.
The order passed by the Election Commission was published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette on August 28, 2026.
Meanwhile, reacting to the ECI order, he told media persons in Chennai on September 5 that Aasan Maulaana strongly criticised the ECI. He alleged that the ECI gave a delayed judgment without allowing him proper time to respond.
He claimed that the advertisement expenses in question were handled by the party leadership and properly documented, making the ECI’s ruling unfair and legally invalid. He also attributed the action to political animosity from the BJP.
Earlier, he approached the Madras High Court challenging a show-cause notice issued by the ECI on March 16, 2023, seeking an explanation as to why he should not be disqualified for reportedly not having made a true disclosure of his election expenditure in 2021.
