The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has failed to submit accounts related to donations and election expenditure to the Election Commission.
After failing to submit donation details it received in 2013-14 to the Election Commission, it has now come to light that BJP has not submitted the mandatory election expenditure statement to the Election Commission for Delhi Assembly elections held in December 2013.
As per rule, political parties are required to submit a statement of election expenditure to the Election Commission within 75 days of completion of Assembly elections.
Private election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has now come up with details of the donations and spending by parties during the Assembly polls.
Except BJP, all other national — Congress, BSP, NCP, CPI, and CPM — have submitted their accounts. Both national and regional parties collected Rs 1.69 crore while it spend Rs 2.81 crore with Congress leading the pack on both donations and spending. Congress collected Rs 80.06 lakh while it spent Rs 1.72 crore.
The BSP did not collect a single paisa but spent Rs 57.97 lakh. The CPM collected Rs 12.01 lakh but spend only Rs 1.1 lakh.
The report noted that the parties’ preferred mode of expenditure was by cheque or demand draft. Out of the total expenditure of Rs 2.81 crore, expense of Rs 2.52 (89.67 per cent) was incurred in cheque, while only Rs 7.11 lakh (2.53 per cent) was spent in cash.
The report also noted that Rs 21.95 lakh (7.80 per cent) remained unpaid. “99.97 per cent of the total expenditure of Congress was by cheque or DD (Rs 1.7 crore) while CPM incurred Rs 94,500 in cheque (86 per cent) and CPI incurred Rs 68,000 (85 per cent) in cheque,” it said.
Publicity, travel and expenditure on candidates were the major areas of expenditure. Political parties spent 93.09 per cent of their total expenditure on publicity, 0.09 per cent on travel expenses and 6.81 per cent on candidates.
The Congress party spent Rs 1.58 crore on publicity, which constitutes 91.87 per cent of its total expenditure followed by Rs 14 lakh on travel (8.13 per cent). Akali Dal and BSP incurred 100 per cent expenditure on publicity. While SAD spent Rs 49 lakh, BSP incurred an expenditure of Rs 57.98 lakh on publicity.
DH News Service
