The lotus has bloomed: Will the fragrance spread. The BJP spent over 60 per cent of the total expenditure by all political parties, on publicity, travel, miscellaneous expenses and lumpsum amount to candidates in the 2014 Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls, according to a report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The ADR report says the total expenditure collectively by all the parties in these two elections were Rs 362.87 crore.
With an expenditure of Rs 226.82 crore, the BJP came first, with the Congress in second place with a total expenditure of Rs 63.31 crore.
Of the total expenditure of Rs 362.87 crore by all the political parties, Rs 280.72 crore (77.36 per cent) was spent on publicity, followed by Rs 41.40 crore on travel expenses.
“The BJP has incurred the maximum — Rs 186.39 crore — under Publicity, which forms 66.40 per cent of the total expenditure incurred by all political parties on Publicity,” the ADR said.
Also, among the political parties, the BJP collected the maximum funds at Rs 296.74 crore.
“Of the total funds collected by the BJP, the Central headquarters got 58.69 per cent (Rs 174.159 crore), while the Maharashtra unit got Rs 122.28 crore, and the Haryana unit got Rs 0.303 crore,” the report added.
The Congress also came second in terms of fund collections with Rs 84.37 crore.
“Of this, the Central headquarters got Rs 16.55 crore, while the Maharashtra unit bagged funds of Rs 62.74 crore (74.36 per cent) and Haryana unit got Rs 5.083 crore,” it added.
All the political parties collectively got funds of Rs 464.55 crore at the central headquarters of the parties as well as its state units.
“The most preferred mode of collection was by cheque/DD where the parties collected Rs 323.66 crore (69.67 per cent) of the total funds collected both at the state and Central levels.”
Cash was preferred less by the parties both for collecting and spending the money.
“The cash accounted for about 30 per cent (Rs 140.61 crore) of the total funds collected and only seven per cent of the expenditure was done in cash.”
In terms of expenditure, the central headquarters of the political parties spent maximum (Rs 204.10 crore), followed by Maharashtra units (Rs 136.69 crore).
“Haryana state units spend Rs 16.42 crore in the elections,” the report said, which also mentioned that the Haryana state unit collected funds of Rs 12.46 crore.
The report also said that at the state level, Maharashtra incurred 732 per cent higher expenditure than Haryana.
The ADR said that the elections expenditure statements of JDS and RLD were not available in the public domain even 4 years and nine months after elections.
“Also, three national parties, Congress, CPI and BJP delayed the submission of their election expenditure statements for Maharashtra and Haryana State Assembly elections, 2014 by 181 days, 197 days and 198 days, respectively.”
The BJP came to power in the two states in 2014. Both states are going for polls on October 21. (IANS)