Press Release: Election Expenditure statements of CPI, LJP, RJD, RLD, RLSP, JDS, JMM and NPEP are not available in the public domain despite contesting elections, with a total delay of more than 128 Days

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Jun 3, 2021, 2:35:31 AM6/3/21

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Press Release

3rd June, 2021

Analysis of Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred by Political Parties

during Bihar Assembly Election, 2020

For the complete reports in English and Hindi on party-wise funds collected and expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads such as publicity and travel, refer to the detailed reports attached herewith.

To access the reports on the website, please go to: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-funds-collected-and-expenditure-incurred-political-parties-during-bihar-assembly-1

Executive Summary

Political parties are required to submit a statement of election expenditure to the Election Commission of India (ECI) within 75 days of completion of Assembly Elections.
The expenditure statement contains details of the total amount received as funds in the form of cash, cheques and demand drafts and the total amount spent under various heads.
The expenditure statement contains information on the amount spent on the following heads at the central and state levels by the party:

o Publicity

o Travel expenses

o Other expenses

o Expenditure towards candidates

o Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s)

Political parties submit these statements providing information of funds collected 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 Bihar, held between the months of September (elections announced on 25-09-2020) and November (elections completed on 12-11-2020), 2020.
6 National Parties and 11 Regional Parties have been considered in this report. However, the expenditure statements of only 9 political parties are available for analysis on the Election Commission’s website.
Election expenditure statements of CPI, LJP, RJD, RLD, RLSP, JDS, JMM and NPEP for Bihar Assembly election are unavailable on the website of the ECI at the time of preparation of this report.

Details provided in the Election Expenditure Statement

Funds Collected and Expenditure incurred by political parties

Total funds collected by 9 political parties during Bihar Assembly Election held in 2020 was Rs 185.14 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 81.86 cr.
Funds collected by the parties at the Central Headquarters was Rs 106.16 cr and expenditure was Rs 43.256 cr. Bihar State Units of parties spent Rs 38.604 cr.
AIFB and NCP are the only two parties that declared no expenditure incurred either at the central or at the state unit level despite contesting elections.

Expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads

Political parties declare their expenditure under the heads of Publicity, Travel Expenses, Other/ Miscellaneous expenses, Lumpsum amounts paid to their contesting candidates and Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s).
Political Parties that contested in Bihar Election, 2020, spent the highest, Rs 46.59 cr on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates, followed by Rs 37.32 cr on Travel, Rs 36.73 cr on Publicity, Rs 5.50 cr on Other/Miscellaneous expenses and Rs 3.899 cr on Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s).
Expenditure on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates is 35.83% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.
Expenditure on Travel is 28.70% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.
AIFB is the only party that declared no expenses incurred under the five heads.

Expenditure on Publicity by political parties

Political Parties are required to segregate their publicity expenses under three heads: Media Advertisement, Publicity Materials and Public Meetings.
Publicity expenditure from Bihar State Units is the highest, Rs 30.308 cr or 82.52% of the total expenditure on publicity, followed by Rs 6.422 cr or 17.48% from Central Headquarters.
During the Bihar Assembly election, political parties spent the maximum on Media Advertisement (Rs 26.548 cr), followed by expenditure on Public Meetings (Rs 6.149 cr) and Publicity Materials (Rs 4.033 cr).

Expenditure on Travel by political parties

The ‘Travel’ head is segregated into travel expenses incurred specifically on star campaigners and that of the party leaders.
Political parties spent 98.12% of their total travel expenses or Rs 36.621 cr on their star campaigners and Rs 70.30 lakhs spent on travel of their party leaders.
Travel expenses from Central Headquarters by itself were Rs 32.291 cr or 86.52%, higher than the expenses incurred from Bihar State Units of Rs 5.033 cr or 13.48%.

Comparison with expenditure during Bihar elections 2015

BJP had shown the highest funds collected amongst the Bihar parties, of Rs 51.66 cr during Bihar Assembly Election, 2015 while the party collected Rs 35.83 cr, the fourth highest funds after JDU (Rs 55.607 cr), BSP (Rs 44.581 cr) & INC (Rs 44.536 cr) during Bihar elections 2020.

During Bihar elections 2015, out of total expenditure of Rs 150.99 cr, BJP incurred the maximum expenditure of Rs 103.76 cr, followed by SP (Rs 15.65 cr), JDU (Rs 13.63 cr) and INC (Rs 9.88 cr). During the 2020 elections, BJP incurred the maximum expenditure of Rs 54.721 cr followed by INC (Rs 12.352 cr), JDU (Rs 9.851 cr) and BSP (Rs 4.794 cr).

Political Parties that contested in Bihar Assembly Election, 2015, spent the highest, Rs 74.97 cr on Publicity, followed by Rs 59.32 cr on travel expenses, Rs 46.618 cr on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates and Rs 9.902 cr on Other/Miscellaneous expenses.

In contrast during the 2020 elections, parties spent the highest on Lumpsum amounts paid to candidates, Rs 46.5933 cr or 35.827% of the total followed by Rs 37.324 cr or 28.70% of total on Travel and Rs 36.73 cr or 28.243% of total expenditure on Publicity.

Observations of ADR

The complete election expenditure statements of CPI, LJP, RJD, RLD, RLSP, JDS, JMM and NPEP are not available in the public domain despite contesting elections, with a total delay of more than 128 Days. This is in violation of the Supreme Court judgment dated 4th April, ’96 (Common Cause vs. Union of India), directing the Election Commission to create a format for the recognized parties to submit their statements.
7 Political Parties AIFB, NCP, Shivsena, JDU, INC, BJP and BSP delayed the submission of their election expenditure statements for Bihar State Assembly Election, 2020 by 07 days, 07 days, 12 days, 21 days, 43 days, 48 days and 63 days respectively.
NCP and AIFB declared no expenditure incurred despite contesting elections.

Recommendations of ADR

This year, nine working groups (comprising Chief Electoral Officers of states and other ECI officials) presented their draft recommendations to the ECI, among which it was suggested that there needs to be a cap on the expenditure to be incurred for an election by political parties. In 2015, ECI also recommended to the Ministry of Law, a proposal to cap maximum expenditure of political parties to a multiple of half of maximum prescribed limit for individual candidates with the number of candidates fielded. ADR recommends that steps must be taken in this regard and the modalities must be worked out in a time bound manner.
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.