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Press Release

Date: 15th Feb, 2018


Analysis of Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred by Political Parties in the 5 State Assembly Elections, 2017

- Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh

For the complete report on state-wise expenditure incurred by National and Regional parties on various heads such as publicity and travel, refer to the detailed report attached herewith.

Executive Summary

 

Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred: National and Regional Parties

  • ·         National Parties and 16 Regional Parties have been considered for this report.
    • ·         National and Regional parties collected a total of Rs 1503.21 cr and incurred a total expenditure of Rs 494.36 cr towards the five state Assembly elections held in 2017.
    • ·         Total funds collected by the National Parties during the five state Assembly Elections held in 2017 was Rs 1314.29 cr and total expenditure incurred by the National Parties was Rs 328.66 cr.
    • ·         Of the 16 regional parties which contested in the five state assembly elections, AIFB, JKNPP, NPP, PDA, RLSP and RSP have not submitted their election expenditure statements for any of the Assembly elections that they contested in.
    • ·         Based on the details provided, the Regional Parties collected a total of Rs 188.92 cr and incurred an expenditure of Rs 165.7 cr.

 

Graph: Funds collected and expenditure incurred by National and Regional Parties, Assembly Elections, 2017

 

Expenditure incurred by National and Regional Parties under various heads

  • ·         Political parties declare their expenditure under the heads of Publicity, Travel Expenses, Other/ Miscellaneous expenses and Lumpsum amount paid to their contesting candidates.
  • ·         The National Parties spent a total of Rs 189.46 cr on Publicity while the Regional Parties declared a total of Rs 110.77 cr under the same head.
  • ·         Expenditure incurred by both National and Regional parties on publicity forms 56% of the total expenditure while the expenditure under three other heads, put together forms 44% of the total expenses.

 

  • ·         While National Parties spent Rs 79.23 cr on Travel expenses, the Regional Parties incurred Rs 31.463 cr under the same head.
  • ·         National Parties declared giving Rs 75.12 cr to their candidates for election expenditure; the Regional Parties spent only Rs 22.62 cr on their candidates.

                                                                                                           

Graph: Expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads, Assembly Elections, 2017

 

Expenditure on Publicity by National and Regional Parties

  • ·         National and regional Parties are required to segregate their publicity expenses under three heads: Media advertisementPublicity materials and Public meetings.
  • ·         The National Parties spent the maximum on Media Advertisement (Rs 133.33 cr), followed by expenditure on Publicity Materials (Rs 28.13 cr) and Public Meeting (Rs 27.98 cr).
  • ·         The Regional Parties too spent the maximum under the head of Media Advertisement (Rs 74.675 cr), followed by expenditure on Publicity Materials (Rs 35.2 cr) and Public Meeting (Rs 0.91 cr).
  • ·         Regional Parties spent Rs 7.07 cr more than National Parties on Publicity materials.

Graph: Expenditure incurred on Publicity by National and Regional Political Parties, Assembly Elections, 2017


Expenditure on travel by National and Regional Parties

  • ·         The ‘Travel’ Head is segregated into travel expenses incurred specifically on star campaigners and that of the party leaders.
  • ·         The National parties spent 94.55% of their total travel expenses or Rs 74.91 cr on their star campaigners and only 5.45% or Rs 4.32 cr on travel of their party leaders.
  • ·         Regional parties spent 93.77% of their total travel expenses of Rs 29.51 cr on their star campaigners and the remaining 6.23% or Rs 1.96 cr on travel of their party leaders.

 

Graph: Expenditure incurred on Travel by National and Regional political parties, Assembly Elections, 2017

 

Observations and Recommendations of ADR

Observations of ADR

  • ·         INCNCP and CPM are the three national parties whose state units have collected more funds than their Central Headquarters.  INC has received Rs 62.09 cr from its state units, followed by Rs 0.61 cr received by state units of NCP and Rs 0.465 cr by CPM.
  • ·         The National and Regional parties, together, had left Rs 47.04 cr ‘remaining unpaid’ which formed 9.52% of the total expenditure of Rs 494.36 cr.
  • ·         AITC is the only national party that has incurred no expenditure either at the central or at the state unit level despite contesting in Manipur and Punjab Assembly elections.
  • ·         Despite contesting in 3 Assembly elections (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand), Shiv Sena declared that the party incurred no expenditure towards their election campaign in the states.
  • ·         BJP spent the highest amount of Rs 152.63 cr or 60.42% of its total expenditure on publicity while INC spent the highest on lumpsum amount paid to candidates (Rs 39.83 cr) which formed 53.64% of its total expenditure.

Recommendations of ADR

  • ·         It must be made mandatory for all political parties to submit their statements of expenditure in the format given by the ECI, within the prescribed time limit. Political parties not submitting on time or in the prescribed format should be heavily penalized.
  • ·         A format similar to the donations report along with the date of donations, submitted to the ECI on an annual basis, has to be prescribed for the expenditure statement so as to bring in more transparency in the finances of the political parties especially during elections when it is said that black money plays a major role.
  • ·         Similar to the shadow observers of the ECI for monitoring expenditure of candidates, there must also be observers for monitoring the expenditure of political parties.

Contact Details

State Coordinators

 

Goa

Mr. Bhasker Assoldekar
+91-98203-53159
[email protected]

 

Manipur

Mr Miranjan Loitongbam
+91 9089342028
[email protected]

 

Punjab

Mr.Jaskirat Singh
+91-93160-84953
[email protected]

 

Uttar Pradesh

Mr. Sanjay Singh 
+91-94151-14151
[email protected]

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)

 

Media and Journalist Helpline

 

+91 80103 94248

Email: [email protected]

 

 

Maj Gen Anil Verma (Retd)

Head - NEW & ADR

 

+91 8826479910

[email protected]

 

 

 

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar

IIM Ahmedabad (Retd)

 

Founder Member- NEW & ADR

 +919999620944

[email protected]

 

 

Prof Trilochan Sastry

IIM Bangalore

 

Founder Member - NEW & ADR

 +919448353285,

[email protected]

 

For Full Report: CLICK HERE