Parties spent Rs 402.09 crore for Assembly polls in 2016

National and regional parties collected Rs 355.11 crore during the last year's Assembly elections in five states, including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, while incurring an expenditure of Rs 402.09 crore, an analysis has shown.

The analysis by private election watchdog Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) of the elections held in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal also showed that the parties preferred to pay through cheque on expenditure incurred on a variety of heads.

BJP collected the highest amount of Rs 131.72 crore as funds during the period while other national parties Congress managed to garner Rs 94.23 crore, CPI(M) Rs 51.88 crore, CPI Rs 8.09 crore and NCP Rs 1.97 crore.

Trinamool Congress, which became a national party after the 2016 polls, collected Rs 3.02 crore. Among the regional parties, Samajwadi Party (Rs 35.66 crore) and DMK (Rs 9.70 crore) topped the list.

When it came to expenditure, 75.32% or Rs 302.86 crore was spent by cheque while the national and regional parties, together, had left Rs 75.93 crore as "remaining unpaid".

"Expenditure in cash was least preferred by the political parties, as only 5.79% or Rs 23.30 crore of the total expenditure was incurred in this mode," the report said.

BJP spent Rs 90.41 crore, the highest among parties, on lumpsum amount given to contesting candidates, followed by publicity expenses of Rs 87.28 crore. Congress too spent the highest on lumpsum amount paid to candidates at Rs 52.7 crore followed by publicity expenses Rs 25.07 crore.

The top three regional parties which spent the highest are DMK (Rs 97.34 crore) followed by AIADMK (Rs 64.72 crore) and Trinamool Congress (Rs 31.94 crore). Only Trinamool Congress, AIUDF, Muslim League and JD(U) spent more on travel expenses than publicity.

Both BJP and Congress the highest amount under travel expenses for star campaigners. While BJP's total travel bill came to Rs 32.69 crore, only 11 lakh were spent on local leaders. For Congress, It was 33 lakh for local leaders while star campaigners' bill came for Rs 14.36 crore.