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Among the regional parties across India, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had the highest income of Rs 249.31 crore as well as growth in income in 2018-19, followed by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with an income of Rs 188.71 crore while the YSR Congress (YSR-C), whose income was Rs 181.08 crore, spent the most.

As many as 24 regional parties declared a part of their income as remaining unspent for the year 2018-19 while 13 political parties spent more than the income collected during the year.

However, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), “It is found that the total sum of expenditure declared by the SP in its audited statement is incorrect. On adding the various expenditure heads, it is found that the total declared by the party is Rs 5.594 crore less than the actual amount. This reinforces our demand for proper scrutiny of the parties’ audited accounts by the I-T department,” the report stated.

The BJD reported the highest increase in its income of Rs 235.19 crore followed by YSR-C and TRS which declared a total increase of Rs 166.84 crore and Rs 161.44 crore respectively, between FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19.

Of the 52 regional political parties, 37 parties declared a combined income of Rs  1,089.60 crore in 2018-2019, of which 22.88% or Rs 249.31 crore was the BJD’s income, 17.31% or Rs 188.71 crore was of the TRS and 16.62% or Rs 181.08 crore was the YSR Congress Party’s income.

The audit report of income and expenditure of regional parties were available on the Election Commission’s website though the deadline for political parties to submit these reports was October 31, 2019.

“The total income of top three parties amounted to Rs 619.10 crore, which comprised 56.82% of the total income of the political parties analysed, collectively,” the ADR report said.

Just over 84% of the declared income of the 37 parties, Rs 919.31 crore, came from “voluntary contributions”, including donations and electoral bonds. Of that, 53.09% or Rs 578.49 crore came from electoral bonds, though only seven of the 37 parties accounted for this amount.

As per report, 13 regional parties, including the Samajwadi Party (SP), DMK, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, declared expenditures higher than their incomes. The SP declared an expenditure of 50.65% more than its income – the highest such amount.

Out of the total expenditure of Rs 405.13 crore, 46.69% or Rs 189.174 crore was incurred by the top three parties – the YSRCP (Rs 87.68 crore), the SP (Rs 50.92 crore) and the BJD (Rs 50.57 crore).