40 regional parties declare Rs 2,532 cr income in FY 23-24, says ADR report

New Delhi: Forty of the 60 regional parties, which has submitted its accounts to the Election Commission, have a combined income of Rs 2,532.09 crore in 2023-24 with an analysis on Wednesday showing that Rs 1796.02 crore of 70.93% of them coming from voluntary contributions.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in its report that the BRS reported the highest income at Rs 685.51 crore, followed by the Trinamool Congress Rs 646.39 crore, BJD Rs 297.81 crore, TDP Rs 285.07 crore and YSR Congress Rs 191.04 crore. The 40 parties together spent Rs 1,320.96 crore with YSR Congress (Rs 295.76 crore) and BRS (Rs 254.91 crore).

The total income of top 5 parties amounted to Rs 2105.82 crore or 83.17% of the total income of 40 parties analysed by the private election watchdog.

According to the report, Trinamool received the highest donations worth Rs 612.42 crore or 94.74% of its total income through electoral bonds followed by BRS declaring electoral bonds worth Rs 495.52 crore or 72.28% and BJD Rs 245.50 crore or 82.44% of its total income.

For 39 parties out of 40 parties whose data is available for both the years, 23 parties have shown an increase in their income from 2022-23 to 2023-24 while 15 parties have shown a decline in their income during this period.

While the Goa Forward Party has declared zero income during both financial years, Trinamool reported the highest increase of Rs 312.93 crore followed by TDP and BJD -- increase of Rs 221.07 crore and Rs 116.75 crore respectively.

Twenty-seven parties declared that a part of their income was unspent while the expenses of 12 exceeded the income collected during the year. The BRS had Rs 430.60 crore from its income unspent, Trinamool Rs 414.92 crore and BJD Rs 253.79 crore.

At the same time, 12 parties had their expenses exceed their income. These parties included YSR Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party, CPI(ML)L, LJP(RV) and JD(U).

The ADR said in its report, "full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI...all political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will only strengthen political parties, elections and democracy."

It also recommended penal or stringent action against recognised parties for delaying or defaulting on the submission of their audit and contribution reports each year.