Regional parties garner Rs 447.49 crore via electoral bonds in 2019-20: ADR report

Fourteen regional parties garnered Rs 447.49 crore through electoral bonds in 2019-20 and it accounted for more than half of their income during the fiscal, according to an analysis by private election watchdog Association for Democratic Rights (ADR).

Altogether 42 regional parties garnered an income of Rs 877.95 crore while only 14 parties, including TRS, TDP, YSR Congress, JD(U) and RJD, got donations through electoral bonds.

Ruling TRS in Telangana tops the list of regional parties that received donations through electoral bonds at Rs 89.15 crore followed by TDP at Rs 81.60 crore. The ruling YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh came third with Rs 74.35 crore.

Naveen Patnaik's BJD got Rs 50.50 crore through electoral bonds while ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu got Rs 45.50 crore, Shiv Sena Rs 40.98 crore and AAP Rs 17.77 crore. JD(U) received Rs 13 crore and its rival RJD Rs 2.5 crore. Samajwadi Party received Rs 10.84 crore and AIADMK got Rs 6.05 crore through electoral bonds during 2019-20.

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

While donations through electoral bonds accounted for 50.97 per cent, the income generated through Interest Income and fixed deposits was Rs 113.761 crore or 12.96 per cent. Donations and Contributions amounted to Rs 228.82 crore or 26.06 per cent of the total income.

H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S) managed to amass Rs 7.50 crore through electoral bonds while Akali Dal (Rs 6.5 crore) and JMM (Rs one crore) also got money via the same route.

An earlier report by ADR had shown that 62.92 per cent (Rs 2,993.82 crore) of the total income of four national parties — BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress and NCP — came from donations through electoral bonds. While 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, three national parties CPI(M), CPI and BSP did not receive any donation through electoral bonds.

When it comes to total income, TRS topped the list collecting Rs 130.46 crore followed by Shiv Sena (Rs 111.40 crore), YSR Congress (Rs 92.739 crore), (TDP Rs 91.53 crore) and BJD (Rs 90.35 crore). The income of the top five parties accounted for 58.83 per cent of the total income of the political 42 parties analysed. Details of 11 regional parties are not available in the public domain.

According to the report, there are 24 regional parties who declared a part of their income as remaining unspent for 2019-20 while 18 parties spent more than the income collected during that year.

TRS has more than 83.76 per cent of its total income remaining unspent while AIADMK and JJP have 67.82 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively, of their income remaining unspent.

TDP, BJD, DMK, SP, JDS, AJSU, JVM-P, INLD, PMK, MGP, GFP, SDF, MNF, AIFB, NPF, JKPDP, IPFT and MPC are the 18 regional parties that declared to have spent more than their income. BJD has declared spending the highest amount of Rs 95.78 crore or 106.01 per cent more than its income.

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