In poll year, AIADMK's individual donations under Rs 20,000: EC

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Author:

Date:

19.01.2017

City:

Chennai

AIADMK which won the May 2016 assembly election, notching 132 seats, has not received any donation above Rs 20,000 during the period 2015-16 according to the financial reports submitted to the Election Commission. This is the second year in running that the ruling party in Tamil Nadu has informed the EC that all the donations it received were below `20,000 individually , thus precluding it from revealing details.

While the DMK has not yet filed its report for the financial year, donors from Tamil Nadu made the maximum amount of donation in cash to various regional parties, going by the data available with EC. A total of `2.46 crore in cash was donated to parties in Tamil Nadu. This is the highest in the country followed by Punjab.

PMK has declared the maximum donation in cash in Tamil Nadu with `2.65 cr. The party declared that it made a collection of `0.75 cr during 2014-15.This increased by 252.8% in the financial year 2015-16 with a collection of `2.646 cr.

"It is to be noted that PMK has not provided PAN details of even a single donor in its financial statement. The party collected the money from 571 donors without PAN," said Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), which collated the data available with EC.

"The official details of donations made to the party are available only with the finance wing of the party and chief minister O Panneerselvam. We have declared all that is required to be disclosed," said an AIADMK spokesperson not willing to be quoted.

The total amount of donations above `20,000 declared by regional parties across the country add up to `107.62 cr from 2,249 donors. Of the other regional parties, a total of `86.84cr was declared by Shiv Sena from 143 donors while AAP declared receiving `6.605 cr from 1,187 donors. The donations declared by Shiv Sena is more than four times the total amount of donations declared by 15 other regional parties during the same period.

The Supreme Court delivered a judgement on September 13, 2013, declaring that no part of a candidate's affidavit should be left blank.