Political parties collected Rs 2,355 crore funds for last 3 Lok Sabha polls

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Date:

23.05.2016

City:

New Delhi

New Delhi, May 23: Rs 2,355.35 crore was the total funds collected by political parties during the Lok Sabha elections of 2004,2008 and 2014. Collectively, during the Lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 2009 and 2014, political parties declared collecting a total of Rs 2355.35 crores of which 44% or Rs 1039.06 crores was by cash and 55% or Rs 1299.53 crores was by cheque says a detailed report by the Association for Democratic Reforms.

Rs 16.76 crores was declared by the parties as funds collected 'in kind' during the Lok Sabha elections the report also states. Between January 2004 and December 2015, there were a total of 71 Assembly Elections and 3 Lok Sabha Elections. The maximum number of Assembly elections were held in 2008 when 10 states (Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Rajasthan, J & K, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram) went for polls while least number of Assembly elections were held in 2010 when only Bihar went for polls.

Funds collected:

Except in 2004, it can be noticed that between 2005 and 2015, the number of contesting parties increased with the total number of Assembly elections held during that period. While 65 parties contested in 4 Assembly elections held in 2005, it increased to 82 parties in 5 Assembly elections held in 2006. Maximum number of 120 parties contested in the 10 Assembly elections held in 2008. The number of National and Regional Parties which contested in the Lok Sabha elections held in 2004 was 42 while during 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it was 41 parties and in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it increased to 45 National and Regional parties.

According to the proforma issued by the Election Commission of India to political parties for submission of their election expenditure statements, funds received between the date of announcements of elections and completion of elections have to be disclosed in cash, cheques/DD, in kind (value of which has to be specified). Collectively, during the Lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 2009 and 2014, political parties declared collecting a total of Rs 2355.35 crores of which 44% or Rs 1039.06 crores was by cash and 55% or Rs 1299.53 crores was by cheque. Rs 16.76 crores was declared by the parties as funds collected 'in kind' during the Lok Sabha elections.

Top 5 regional parties:

Among all the Regional parties who have submitted their election expenditure statements for the Lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 2009, 2014, the top 5 parties include SP, AAP, AIADMK, BJD and SAD. These 5 parties have declared collecting a total of Rs 267.14 crores which forms 62% of the total funds declared by all the regional parties collectively. They have declared collecting Rs 129.22 crores in cash (48% of total funds) and Rs 137.72 crores by cheque (52% of total funds).

Despite contesting in only one Lok Sabha election, AAP stands second in the total funds collected by declaring Rs 51.83 crores. This forms 19% of total funds collected by all the 5 Regional parties which contested in 3 Lok Sabha elections. Among the top 5 regional parties, SP has declared the maximum expenditure of Rs 90.09 crores during the Lok Sabha elections followed by AIADMK which had declared incurring an expenditure of Rs 39.31 crores. Among all the regional parties which have declared their expenditure during Assembly elections held between 2004 and 2015, the top 5 parties include SP, AAP, SAD, Shiv Sena and AITC.

The 5 parties have declared a total of Rs 291.92 crores as funds collected of which Rs 112.87 crores was in cash and Rs 179.02 crores was by cheque. This forms 82% of the total funds declared by all the regional parties collectively. SP declared collecting a total of Rs 186.8 crores while AAP comes a distant second with Rs 38.54 crores as total funds collected. SP declared incurring the maximum expenditure of Rs 96.54 crores during the Assembly elections followed by Shiv Sena with Rs 29.605 crores.

Defaulting in submissions:

Among the National Parties, election expenditure statements of NCP and CPI are not available for 2 Assembly elections held between 2011 and 2015. The availability of election expenditure statements of Regional Parties is equally worrisome where the statements of JD(U) is unavailable for 15 Assembly Elections while that of SP is unavailable for 11 Assembly Elections.