Rs 40 lakh and counting! Cong’s air travel expenses for badabandi

Jaipur: The ruling Congress is likely to have incurred expenses of Rs 40 lakh for arranging air travel of its MLAs to Udaipur in wake of fencing for Rajya Sabha polls. More than two dozen MLAs were sent to Udaipur on different days by charter planes since June 2.

However, in the first round, most of the MLAs were sent by buses and private vehicles. But since then all the MLAs and ministers are being sent to Udaipur by air. For this, the Congress party has so far hired 3 charter aircrafts through 2 airlines. For the first time on June 4, 1 charter plane and 1 helicopter were hired. On June 5 and 8, two trips each day were made. Usually the flying cost of a charter plane is Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 lakh per hour.