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Analysis of Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred by Political Parties in the 5 State Assembly Elections, 2018
- Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram & Telangana

For the complete report on state-wise expenditure incurred by National and Regional parties on various heads such as publicity and travel, refer to the detailed report attached herewith.

Executive Summary

· Political parties are required to submit a statement of election expenditure to the Election Commission within 75 days of completion of Assembly Elections. Accordingly, the last date of submission was 25 February, 2019.

· The expenditure statement contains details of the total amount received as funds in the form of cash, cheque and demand draft and the total amount spent under various heads.

· The expenditure statement contains information on the amount spent on the following heads at the central, state, district and constituency levels by the party:

o Publicity

o Travel expenses

o Other expenses

o Expenditure towards candidates

· Political parties submit these statements providing information of fundscollected and spent between announcement and completion of elections. This period could be between 3 weeks to 3 months based on the notification issued by the Election Commission.

· This report analyses the funds received and expenditure incurred by recognized political parties, during the State Assembly elections to Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram & Telangana held in the month of December 2018.

· 6 National Parties and 7 Regional Parties have been considered for analysis in this report.

· 10 Regional parties which have not submitted their election expenditure statements yet to the ECI are: JDU, SHS, RLSP, IUML, JDS, LJP, TRS, RJD, ZNP and NPP.

Details provided in the Election Expenditure Statement

Funds Collected and Expenditure incurred by political parties

· The National and Regional Political Parties considered in this report are: BJP, INC, BSP, CPM, NCP, CPI, AAP, SP, AIFB, RLD, AIMIM, TDP and MNF.

· AIFB had not declared any funds collected at the Central Headquarters and State Units during Madhya Pradesh and Telangana Assembly Elections, 2018.

· Total funds collected by 12 political parties during Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram & Telangana Assembly Elections held in 2018 was Rs 826.76 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 337.84 cr.

· Funds collected by the parties at the Central Headquarters was Rs 613.57 crand expenditure was Rs 89.95 cr. Madhya Pradesh State Unit spent Rs 138.16 cr, Telangana State Unit spent Rs 54.56 cr, Rajasthan State Unit spent Rs 34.88 cr, Chhattisgarh State Unit spent Rs 19.06 cr. while Mizoram State Unit spent Rs 1.226 cr.

Chart: Total funds collected and expenditure incurred by political parties during 5-state Assembly Elections, 2018

Chart: Funds collected and expenditure incurred by political parties during 5-state Assembly Elections, 2018

Expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads

· Political parties declare their expenditure under the heads of Publicity, Travel Expenses, Other/ Miscellaneous expenses and Lumpsum amount paid to their contesting candidates.

· Political Parties that contested in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram & Telangana Assembly Elections, 2018, spent the highest, Rs 185.65 cr on Publicity, followed by Rs 147.56 cr on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates, Rs 108.08 cr on Travel expenses and Rs 37.75 cr on Other/Miscellaneous expenses.

· Expenditure on Publicity is 38.75% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.

· Expenditure on Other/Miscellaneous is 7.88% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.

Chart: Expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads during 5-state Assembly Elections, 2018

Observations of ADR

· The election expenditure statements of JDU, SHS, RLSP, IUML, JDS, LJP, TRS, RJD, ZNP and NPP are not available in the public domaindespite contesting elections, with a total delay of more than two months.

· The expenditure statements of BJP for Mizoram Assembly Elections and of AAP for Rajasthan Assembly Elections are not available on the website of ECI despite contesting elections in the respective states.

· The expenditure statement of AIFB declared receiving no funds and incurred no expenditure from its Central Headquarters and State Units despite contesting elections in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

· The expenditure statement of MNF and AIMIM declared receiving no funds and incurred no expenditure from their State Units despite contesting elections in Mizoram and Telangana respectively.

Recommendations of ADR

· It must be made mandatory for all political parties to submit their statements of expenditure in the format given by the ECI, within the prescribed time limit. Political parties not submitting on time or in the prescribed format should be heavily penalized.

· The details of all donors who contribute to national and regional parties exclusively for their election campaigns must be declared in the public domain irrespective of the amount donated.

· A format similar to the donations report along with the date of donations, submitted to the ECI on an annual basis, has to be prescribed for the expenditure statement so as to bring in more transparency in the finances of the political parties especially during elections when it is said that black money plays a major role.

· Where possible, expenditure must be limited to transactions via cheque/DD/RTGS so as to reduce use of black money in elections, as per the transparency guidelines issued by the ECI.

· Similar to the shadow observers of the ECI for monitoring expenditure of candidates, there must also be observers for monitoring the expenditure of political parties.