The BJP had received as much money in donations as all other national political parties combined for the 2014 general elections that it won with a sweeping verdict, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The ADR report said the BJP collected Rs 560 crore as against Rs 350 crore by the Congress, around Rs 77 crore each by NCP and the BSP and Rs 65 crore by the two Left parties — CPI (M) and CPI.

On the expenditure side also the BJP scored over all its rivals by spending Rs 712 crore. The Congress spent Rs 486 crore while NCP spent Rs 65 crore and BSP half of the contributions it received. The biggest expenditure by the national political parties was on publicity — Rs 858 crore  — followed by travel expenses for campaign of its leaders (Rs 311.8 crore) and funding of the candidates (Rs  311.4 crore).

Interestingly, the expenditure on polls by the BJP and the Congress was higher than the contributions they declared to the election commission. They failed to give an explanation for this in their submissions to the poll watchdog.

Over a period of ten years, the report showed that the funds collected by national parties had risen by nearly five times, with BJP and Congress topping the charts in terms of capital mop-up.

The total for last three general elections was Rs 2,237 crore including BJP’s Rs 1,171 crore, followed by Congress’ Rs 778 crore, BSP’s Rs 110 crore, NCP’s Rs 91 crore, CPM’s Rs 66 crore and CPI’s Rs 20  crore.

The report said the total funds raised by the six parties grew to Rs 1,159 crore in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, from just Rs 223 crore in 2004 general elections.