NEW DELHI: Elections cannot be fought without millions in your accounts. The analysis of elections and the reports submitted by the political parties to election commission clearly signify this.

Collectively, during the last three Lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 2009 and 2014, political parties declared collecting a total of Rs 2355.35 crores of which 44% or Rs 1039.06 crores was by cash and 55% or Rs 1299.53 crores was by cheque, a study by election watchdog Association of Democratic Reforms said.

Rs 16.76 crores was declared by the parties as funds collected ‘in kind’ during the Lok Sabha elections.

Similarly, 71 elections to state assemblies were held during 2004-2015, where collectively, political parties have declared collecting Rs 2107.80 crores in cash (63% of total funds) and Rs 1244.86 crores by cheque (37% of total funds).  Rs 15.39 crores was declared by the parties as funds collected ‘in kind’.

Looking at the top regional parties which collected maximum funds and incurred maximum expenditure during last three Lok Sabha elections, it turned out that SP, AAP, AIADMK, BJD and SAD were among the top five.  These 5 parties declared collecting a total of Rs 267.14 crores which forms 62% of the total funds declared by all the regional parties collectively.

Interestingly, the newbie, AAP, which has only one Lok Sabha election, it stands second in the total funds collected by declaring Rs 51.83 crores. This forms 19% of total funds collected by all the 5 Regional parties which contested in 3 Lok Sabha elections. The party had used innovative means to raise funds from its supporters in india and abroad during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections campaign.

Among the top 5 regional parties, SP has declared the maximum expenditure of Rs 90.09 crores during the Lok Sabha elections followed by AIADMK which had declared incurring an expenditure of Rs 39.31 crores.

Among all the regional parties which have declared their expenditure during Assembly elections held between 2004 and 2015, the top 5 parties include SP, AAP, SAD, Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress. These parties declared a total of Rs 291.92 crores as funds collected.

SP declared collecting a total of Rs 186.8 crores while AAP comes a distant second with Rs 38.54 crores as total funds collected.

Among other interesting, observations pointed out by the ADR, among the 49 regional parties which submitted their details for Lok Sabha elections 20 had spent more than the total funds collected during the election period.

During 2004 to 2015,  the national and regional parties which contested in the Lok Sabha elections held in 2004 was 42 while during 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it was 41 parties and in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it increased to 45 National and Regional parties.