Press Release: Total funds collected by 11 political parties during Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly Elections held in 2022 was Rs 2077.815 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 288.356 cr.

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Oct 17, 2023, 2:42:58 AM10/17/23

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Press Release

17th October, 2023

Analysis of Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred by Political Parties during Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly Elections, 2022

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, please go to: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-funds-collected-and-expenditure-incurred-political-parties-during-himachal-pradesh

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, for Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the last date of submission was 23 February, 2023.
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)
o   Expenses on Virtual Campaign through Social Media platforms/Apps/other means by party Central Headquarters
Political parties submit these statements providing information of funds collected and spent between the 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 Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections held between the months of October (elections announced on 17^th October-2022) and December (elections completed on 10 December 2022), 2022.
6 National Parties and 7 Regional Parties have been considered for analysis in this report. However, the expenditure statements of only 11 political parties are available on the Election Commission’s website.
The election expenditure statements of JD(S) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) parties were not available on the website of the ECI at the time of making this report.

Details provided in the Election Expenditure Statement

Funds Collected and Expenditure incurred by political parties

The National Political Parties considered in this report are: BJP, INC, BSP, NCP, CPI(M) and CPI. The Regional parties considered are AAP, CPI(ML)(L), AIMIM, SP and JD(U).
NCP is the only party which did not declare any funds collected and election expenditure incurred at the Central Headquarters and State Unit level and JD(U) has not declared any expenditure during the Gujarat Assembly Election, 2022.
Total funds collected by 11 political parties during Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly Elections held in 2022 was Rs 2077.815 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 288.356 cr.
Funds collected by the parties at the Central Headquarters was Rs 1943.639 cr and expenditure was Rs 110.943 cr. Gujarat State Units spent Rs 168.653 cr and Himachal Pradesh State Units spent Rs 8.76 cr.

Expenditure incurred by political parties under various heads

Political parties declare their expenditure under the heads of Publicity, Travel Expenses, Other/ Miscellaneous expenses, Lumpsum amount paid to their contesting candidates, Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s) and Expenses on Virtual Campaign through Social Media platforms/Apps/other means by party Central Headquarters.
Political Parties that contested in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly Elections, 2022, spent the highest, Rs 209.446 cr on Publicity, followed by Rs 127.773 cr on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates, Rs 57.115 cr on Travel expenses, Rs 20.246 cr on Other/Miscellaneous expenses, Rs 13.885 cr on Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s) and Rs 2.583 cr on Expenses on Virtual Campaign through Social Media platforms/Apps/other means by party Central Headquarters.
Expenditure on Publicity is 48.59% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.
Expenditure on Other/Miscellaneous is 4.70% of the overall expenditure declared under various 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.
During Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections, political parties spent the maximum on Media Advertisement (Rs 121.218 cr), followed by expenditure on Publicity Materials (Rs 70.675 cr) and Public Meetings (Rs 17.553 cr).
Publicity expenditure from Gujarat State Unit is the highest, Rs 139.136 cr or 66.43% of the total expenditure on publicity, followed by Rs 60.572 cr or 28.92% from Central Headquarters, Rs 9.738 cr or 4.65% from Himachal Pradesh state units.

Expenditure on Travel by political parties

The ‘Travel’ head was segregated into travel expenses incurred specifically on star campaigners and that of the party leaders.
Political parties spent 92.38% of their total travel expenses or Rs 52.76 cr on their star campaigners and the remaining 7.62% or Rs 4.355 cr on travel of their party leaders.
Travel expenses from Central Headquarters by itself was Rs 37.2526 cr or 65.224%, which was higher than the total travel expenses incurred from state units. Total travel expenses from Gujarat state Units were Rs 19.4614 cr or 34.074% of the total expenses incurred.

Observations of ADR

The election expenditure statements of JD(S) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) for the Gujarat assembly elections 2022 are not available in the public domain despite contesting elections, even after an inordinate delay of more than six months.
NCP is the only party which did not declare any funds collected and election expenditure incurred at the Central Headquarters and State Unit levels and JD(U) has not declared any expenditure during the Gujarat Assembly Election, 2022.
It is to be noted that expenses declared by parties in their election statements under cash/cheque/DD/remaining unpaid and under party propaganda differ in amount in some cases as given below:

Election expenses declared by Political parties during Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly Elections, 2022
Political Party	Expenses declared by parties from Central Headquarters and State Units (By cash, Cheque/DD and Remaining unpaid)	Expenses declared by parties from Central Headquarters and State Units:Party Propaganda (A)	Expenses declared by parties from Central Headquarters and State Units: Expenses on Candidates (B)	Total Expenses (A+B)
BJP	194.89	194.89	64.768	Rs 259.658 cr
INC	67.93	67.93	62.707	Rs 130.637 cr
AAP	20.21	20.21	15.437	Rs 35.647 cr
SP	2.781	2.581	0.20	Rs 2.781 cr
BSP	1.82	1.7184	0.1016	Rs 1.82 cr
CPI(M)	0.129	0.129	0.244	Rs 0.373 cr
AIMIM	0.065	0.065	0.0319	Rs 0.097 cr
CPI	0.52	0	0.0245	Rs 0.0245 cr
CPI(ML)(L)	0.0108	0.0108	0	Rs 0.0108 cr
NCP	0	0	0	Rs 0 cr
JD(U)	0	0	0	Rs 0 cr
Total	Rs 288.356 cr	Rs 287.434 cr	Rs 143.514 cr	Rs 431.048 cr

Only the BJP and AAP declared expenses incurred under Social Media advertisement in the Media advertisement expenses section during the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat assembly elections 2022, details of which are given below.

Expenses incurred on social media during Himachal Pradesh & Gujarat assembly elections 2022
Political Parties	Amount Spent on social media	Media Advertisement on social media
BJP	Rs 763.34 Lakhs	Google India Pvt Ltd., Social Media and Social Media Others
AAP	Rs 95.28 Lakhs	Social Media
Total	Rs 858.62 Lakhs

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 the 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 the expenditure of candidates, there must also be observers for monitoring the expenditure of political parties.