New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made over Rs 1,000 crore in 2017-18. It also spent over Rs 750 crore in the same period, as per a report by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). (Also read: Chandrababu Naidu Richest CM, Tripura’s Manik Sarkar Poorest)
The data on Congress was not known as the party was yet to submit its audited reports to the Election Commission.
According to the report released on Monday, the BJP’s total income for 2017-18 stood at Rs 1,027.339 crore followed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) at Rs 104.847 crore. The Mayawati-led BSP declared a total income of Rs 51.694 crore in the year.
The BJP’s income for the year came down by nearly Rs 7 crore as compared to Rs 1,034.27 crore total income it had declared in 2016-17.
On the expenditure front, the BJP spent Rs 758.47 crore in the year, followed by the CPI-M at Rs 83.482 crore and the BSP which spent Rs 14.78 crore.
The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) declared a total income of Rs 8.15 crore but spent Rs 8.84 crore, an excess of Rs 69 lakh over what it earned during the year.
Trinamool Congress declared a total income of Rs 5.167 crore while the Communist Party of India (CPI)’s total income was Rs 1.55 crore.
The Congress, which in 2016-17 earned Rs 225.36 crore, is yet to submit its copy of Income Tax returns for the year. The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30.
Last year, the regional parties had had it pretty good too. Another report by ADR had revealed that 32 regional parties made Rs 321.03 crore in 2016-17 with the Samajwadi Party (SP) disclosing Rs 82.76 crore as its income followed by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
The report took up for analysis the total income and expenditure incurred by 48 regional parties from across the country. ADR could not include 16 parties it wanted to cover as those hadn’t submitted their audit reports to the EC till the time the association prepared its report. These included some major parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
