SP, AAP collected more poll funds than other regional parties: Survey

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stands second after Samajwadi Party (SP) among the regional parties in terms of collecting total funds during both Lok Sabha and assembly elections held between 2004 and 2015, said a survey done by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

According to the survey report, in the three Lok Sabha elections (2004, 2009 and 2014) in this period, the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led SP, which has its main base in Uttar Pradesh, collected Rs.118 crore and spent Rs.90.9 crore. Though AAP contested its first Lok Sabha elections in 2014, they collected funds worth Rs.51.83 crore and spent Rs.17.79 crore.

The other top regional parties include Tamil Nadu's AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Odisha and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab.

AIADMK collected Rs.37.66 crore and stood second highest in expenditure with Rs.39.31 crore, while BJD collected Rs.35.76 crore and spent Rs.16.03 crore and SAD collected Rs.23.89 crore and incurred an expenditure of Rs.28.67 crore.

These five parties have declared collecting a total of Rs.267.14 crores which forms 62 percent of the total funds declared by all the regional parties. An amount of Rs.129.22 crore (48 percent) was collected in cash and Rs.137.72 crore by cheque, said the report.

It said among all the regional parties which have declared their expenditure during assembly elections held between 2004 and 2015, the top five parties include SP, AAP, SAD, Shiv Sena and the Trinamool Congress.

"In assembly elections too, SP declared collecting a total of Rs.186.8 crore, while AAP comes a distant second with Rs.38.54 crore.

"SP declared incurring the maximum expenditure of Rs.96.54 crore during the Assembly elections followed by Shiv Sena with Rs.29.605 crore," the report added.

All the five parties have declared a total of Rs.291.92 crore as funds collected of which Rs. 112.87 crores was in cash and Rs 179.02 crore by cheque. This forms 82 percent of the total funds declared by all the regional parties.

The grand total of funds collected by all national and regional parties during both assembly elections (2004-2015) and three Lok Sabha elections is Rs.5,323.41 crore, while the total expenditure is Rs.5,193.86 crore.

Among national parties, Congress stands first in collection of funds and total expenditure in assembly elections at Rs.1,468.49 crore and Rs.1,209.84 crore respectively while BJP stands second with Rs.1,128.15 crore and Rs.1,025.54 respectively.

In Lok Sabha elections, BJP stands first in funds collection at Rs.855.22 crore and Congress second with Rs.790.55 crore. However, in expenditure, Congress surpassed BJP by spending Rs.1,008.02 crore against its Rs.914.74 crore.

--IANS

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