DMK is richest regional party in India, earned Rs 318 cr via bonds

CHENNAI: In the financial year 2021-22, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) received nearly 26.27 per cent (Rs 318.745 crore) of the total funds (Rs 1213.132 crore) donated to the 36 regional parties in the country, the latest report published by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) revealed evalauting regional parties revealed.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party stood a distant second in comparison by receiving Rs 307.288 crore and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (earlier Telangana Rashtra Samiti) secured third place with Rs 218.112 crore.

The ADR report, released on Saturday, also revealed that 85.7274 per cent of donations made to the 36 regional parties came from Electoral Bonds which amounted to Rs 1039.987 crore out of Rs 1213.132 crore.

As the largest beneficiary of the donations, DMK received Rs 318.745 crore from Electoral Bonds.

ADR has been, for long working on electoral and political reforms in India, by conducting election watches and annual political party watches.

The latest report by ADR took into account all donations that regional political parties received during the financial year 2021-22, as per details submitted by the parties to the ECI.

The report found that the total income of the 35 parties out of 36 increased from Rs 565.424 crore in 2020-21 FY to Rs 1212.708 crore in 2021-22 FY, a total increase of 114.48 per cent.

According to the report, there are 21 regional parties who declared a part of their income as remaining unspent for the financial year 2021-22 while 15 political parties spent more than the income collected during the year.

DMK has more than Rs 283.344 crore of its total income remaining unspent while BJD and BRS have Rs 278.658 crore and Rs 190.173 crore respectively, of their income remaining unspent for 2021-22 FY while SAD, AIADMK, TDP, JDS, MGP, RLD, PMK, INLD, JKPDP, AIUDF, NPF, SDF, PDA, DMDK and JCC (J) are the 15 regional parties that declared spending more than their income.

DMDK has declared spending the highest amount of Rs 3.3052 crore more than its income.

"Under voluntary contributions, political parties collected Rs 852.88 crore of their income from donations through electoral bonds while other donations and contributions amounted to Rs 187.107 crore for 2021-22 FY. Only 10 of the 36 regional parties that were analysed declared donations through electoral bonds amounting to Rs 852.88 crore and Rs 93.468 crore of the total income was generated through interest income by the 36 regional parties during 2021-22 FY, " the report said.

The total declared expenditure of the 36 regional parties for the 2021-22 FY was Rs 288.146 crore and the total expenditure incurred by the top 5 parties such as SP, DMK, AAP, BJD, AIADMK is Rs 176.779 crore of the total expenditure as reported by the 36 regional parties, the report added.

SP which spent Rs 54.017 crore, followed by DMK which spent Rs 35.401 crore, AAP which spent Rs 30.295 crore, BJD which spent Rs 28.63 crore and AIADMK spent Rs 28.436 crore of the total expenditure.

The most common and popular items of expenditure for regional parties for 2021-22 FY are election expenses, general propaganda and administrative expenses, said the report.