National parties collected Rs 287.89 cr during 2016 assembly polls: Survey

National political parties had collected Rs 287.89 crore during the five assembly elections in 2016 but the expenditure incurred was only Rs 188.12 crore, according to a analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The report also said that of 25 regional parties which contested the five state assembly elections have not submitted their election expenditure statements for at least one of the assembly elections.

Some of these parties were National People's Party, Janata Dal-Secular, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Kerala Congress-Mani, the DMDK, the Rastriya Janata Dal, the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party, the All Jharkhand Students Union and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

"Based on the details provided, the regional parties collected a total of Rs 67.22 crore and incurred an expenditure of Rs 213.97 crore," said the report.

2016 saw assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

According to the ADR report, the election expenditure reports of political parties contain information on the funds collected at the central headquarters of the party as well as at the state level.

"The national and regional parties collected a total of Rs 190.23 crore at the central level, in cash and by cheque. This constituted 53.57 per cent of the total funds collected at the central and state levels," it said.

Among the state units, the parties collected the maximum amount of Rs 84.30 crore from West Bengal which formed 23.74 per cent of the total funds collected at both levels.

"The most preferred mode of collected was by cheque where the parties collected Rs 197.32 crore which formed 55.57 per cent of the total funds collected at the state and central levels," said ADR

The report also says that out of total expenditure of Rs 402.09 crore, 75.32 per cent or Rs 302.86 crore was spent by cheque while the national and regional parties together had left Rs 75.93 crore 'remaining unpaid' which formed 18.88 per cent of the total expenditure.

"Similar to fund collection, the central headquarters of the national and regional parties spent the maximum (Rs 217.64 crore) and the second highest amount was declared by the Tamil Nadu state units (Rs 79 crore) followed by West Bengal state units (Rs 57.76 crore) and Kerala state units (Rs 31.01 crore)," said the report.

--IANS

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