BJP's income rose by 50% in 2019-20, bulk of donations came through electoral bonds: ADR report

In a new report, the ADR said the BJP declared a total income of Rs 3,623.28 crore

The ruling BJP's income rose by 50.34 per cent to Rs 3,623.28 crore in 2019-20 with the bulk coming from redemption of electoral bonds while main Opposition Congress saw a 25.69 per cent decrease in its income to Rs 682.21 crore.

The seven national parties — BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP, CPI(M), CPI and BSP — together had garnered income of Rs 4758.20 crore in 2019-20 through a variety of sources like donations, including electoral bonds, as against Rs 3,749.37 crore.

BJP accounted for 76.15 per cent of the income of seven national parties while the six other national parties — all of them in Opposition — were way behind. Congress' share was just 14.24 per cent while others' share was less than 3.33 per cent.

BJP's income rose to Rs 3623.28 crore in 2019-20 from Rs 2410.08 crore in 2018-19 while that of Congress decreased to Rs 682.21 crore from Rs 918.03 crore. Trinamool Congress garnered an income of Rs 143.76 crore (Rsa 192.65 crore in 2018-19), CPI(M) Rs 158.62 crore (Rs 100.96 crore), NCP Rs 85.58 crore (Rs 50.71 crore), BSP Rs 58.24 crore (Rs 69.70 crore) and CPI Rs 6.58 crore (Rs 7.15 crore).

According to the analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress and NCP collected 62.92 per cent (Rs 2993.826 crore) of their total income from donations through electoral bonds.

Altogether, electoral Bonds worth Rs 3429.55 crore were redeemed by all parties and of this, 87.29 per cent was received by these four national parties in 2019-20.

BJP received the highest amount of donation through electoral bonds worth Rs 2555 crore (70.51 per cent of its total income) followed by Congress at distant second with Rs 317.861 crore (46.59 per cent of total income). Trinamool Congress received Rs 100.46 crore (69.92 per cent) and NCP Rs 20.50 crore (23.95 per cent) worth electoral bonds. CPI(M), CPI and BSP did not redeem any electoral bonds.

On the expenditure front, BJP spent only Rs 1,651.02 crore out of its total income running over Rs 3,600 crore while Congress overshot its income to spend Rs 998.15 crore. CPI(M)'s expenditure was Rs 105.68 crore, Trinamool Congress Rs 107.27 crore, NCP Rs 109.18 crore, BSP Rs 95.05 crore and CPI Rs 6.53 crore.

The analysis showed that maximum expenditure for BJP has been towards election or general propaganda which amounted to Rs 1352.92 crore followed by expenses towards administrative costs at Rs 161.54 crore.

Congress spent a maximum of Rs 864.03 crore on election expenditure followed by expenditure of Rs 99.393 crore on administrative and general expenses.

NCP, Trinamool Congress and BSP incurred maximum spending on Election Expenditure of Rs 84.12 crore, Rs 74.65 crore and Rs 51.75 crore respectively. CPI(M) declared that it has spent 35.90 per cent of its total expenditure on employee cost (Rs 37.94 crore) while CPI spent Rs 2.95 crore or 45.26 per cent of its total expenditure on administrative and general expenses.

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