The Bhartiya Janata Party has shown the highest income of ₹1,917.12 crore during the financial year 2021-22 among eight national parties, according to an analysis by the Association of Democratic Reforms, an NGO working on electoral and political reforms. The Trinamool Congress has declared the second highest earnings of ₹545.74 crore closely followed by the Congress at ₹541.27 crore.
The total income of eight national parties was ₹3,289.34 crore, of which the BJP’s share was 58.28%
The BJP’s income has more than doubled from the ₹752.33 crore it had in financial year 2020-21. Close to 54% of the BJP’s income of ₹1,917.12 crore came from electoral bonds, said the report.
The income of the Trinamool Congress in the last fiscal was seven times the income of ₹74.41 crore that it made in 2020-21. Close to 97% of the ₹545.74 crore income came from electoral bonds.
The BJP, Congress, Trinamool and Nationalist Congress Party together collected 55.09% of their total income from donations through poll bonds. As compared with this, four other parties, the CPI(M), the CPI, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the National People’s Party, did not receive any funds through the controversial financial instrument.
As far as expenditure was concerned, the BJP spent only 44.57% or ₹854.46 crore of its income while the Trinamool Congress spent 49.17% or ₹268.33 crore. The Congress spent 73.98% of its income. Most of the BJP’s expenses went towards election and general propaganda, which cost the party ₹645.85 crore, followed by expenses towards administrative costs at ₹133.316 crore.
The Trinamool Congress spent ₹135.12 crore on election expenditure, which was followed by spending towards administration and general expenses, while the Congress spent ₹279.737 crore on election expenditure, followed by ₹90.12 crore on administrative and general expenses.
The report said that the income of the NPP, the BSP and the CPI(M) decreased by 32.38%, 16.56% and 5.15% respectively while the CPI’s rose from ₹2.12 crore to ₹2.87 crore.
The Election Commission of India had in a letter in November 2014 asked all political parties to mandatorily submit details of their audited reports to it.
