The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared 69% or ₹4,847.78 crore of the total ₹6,988.57 crore of assets declared by seven national political parties for 2019-20, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a distant second with assets of ₹698.33 crore, followed by the Congress with ₹588.16 crore, the report added.
The report, released on Friday, also highlights the significant increase in assets of the seven parties, from ₹3,260.81 crore in 2016-17 to ₹3,456.65 crore in 2017-18, ₹5,349.25 crore in 2018-19, and ₹6,988.57 crore in 2019-20.The seven parties are: BJP, BSP, Congress, CPM, AITC, CPI and NCP.
The BJP declared ₹2,904.18 crore of assets in 2018-19, and while it saw a 67% increase in its assets to ₹4,847.78 crore in 2019-20, the Congress saw its assets in the same period fall from ₹928.84 crore to ₹588.16 crore, and the BSP from ₹738 crore to 698.33 crore.
The assets declared by Political Parties fall under six major heads: fixed assets, loans & advances, FDR/ deposits, TDS, investments and other assets.
According to the report, in 2019-20, 44regional parties declared total assets of ₹2,129.38 crore, with the top 10 regional parties accounting for 95.27% of this.
“In FY 2019-20, among the Regional Parties, the highest assets were declared by the Samajwadi Party, worth ₹563.47 crore followed by Telangana Rashtra Samiti, worth ₹301.47 crore ,and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam worth ₹267.61 crore,” the report added.
In 2018-19, the highest assets among regional parties were declared by SP ( ₹572.21 crore), Biju Janata Dal ( ₹232.27 crore), and the AIADMK ( ₹206.75 crore).
ADR ‘s analysis further captures the asset categories declared by the parties. “During FY 2019-20, the National & Regional Parties declared maximum assets under FDR/Fixed Deposits which amounted to ₹5,970.59 crore (65.48% of total assets) followed by ₹1,363.87 crore (14.96%) under Fixed Assets and ₹946.57 crore (10.38%) under Other Assets,” the report said.