Political parties collected over Rs 1,500 crore during the five state Assembly elections held last year, but spent just Rs 494 crore, according to an analysis by ADR.

The figures are cumulative for five national and 16 regional parties put together during the polls to the assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. “Total funds collected by national parties were Rs 1,314.29 crore and total expenditure incurred was Rs 328.66 crore,” a report by think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said. Sixteen regional parties collected about Rs 189 crore and shelled out Rs 166 crore. 

The report is based on the election expenditure statements submitted by political parties to the Election Commission of India.

The national parties spent a total of Rs 189.46 crore on publicity while the regional parties declared about Rs 111 crore under the same head, ADR said. Interestingly, the Congress, NCP and CPM are the three national parties whose state units have collected more funds than their central headquarters.

The Congress received Rs 62.09 crore from its state units, followed by Rs 0.61 crore received by state units of NCP and Rs 0.46 crore by CPM. Incidentally, the BSP declared that the party collected no funds at all.