Press Release: Total funds collected by 13 political parties during Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand Assembly Elections held in 2022 was Rs 1441.797 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 470.101 cr

[ADR India]

Press Release

19th October, 2022

Analysis of Funds Collected and Expenditure Incurred by Political Parties 

during Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand 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, 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-goa-manipur

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 26 May, 2022.
  
  
• 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
  
  

• 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 Assembly elections to Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand held between the months of January (elections announced on 08-01-2022) and March (elections completed on 12-03-2022), 2022.
  
  
• 8 National Parties and 16 Regional Parties have been considered for analysis in this report. However, the expenditure statements of only 13 political parties are available on the Election Commission’s website.
  
  
• The election expenditure statements of 2 National and 9 Regional parties are not available on the website of the ECI. These include CPM, NPEP, SP, AIFB, IUML, JDU, LJSP, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), GFP, MGP and RSP.

Funds Collected and Expenditure incurred by political parties

• The National political parties considered in this report are: BJP, INC, BSP, NCP, AITC and CPI. The Regional parties considered are CPI(ML)(L), AAP, RLD, SAD, Shivsena, AIMIM and NPF.
  
  
• Total funds collected by 13 political parties during Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand Assembly Elections held in 2022 was Rs 1441.797 cr and total expenditure incurred was Rs 470.101 cr.
  
  
• Funds collected by the parties at the Central Headquarters was Rs 1209.598 cr and expenditure was Rs 284.92 cr. Uttar Pradesh State Unit spent Rs 73.238 cr, Punjab State Unit spent Rs 33.95 cr, Uttarakhand State Unit spent Rs 33.678 cr, Manipur State Unit spent Rs 22.495 cr. while Goa State Unit spent Rs 21.82 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.
  
  
• Political Parties that contested in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand Assembly Elections, 2022, spent the highest, Rs 232.882 cr on Publicity, followed by Rs 205.144 cr on Lumpsum amount paid to candidates, Rs 138.618 cr on Travel expenses, Rs 56.751 cr on Other/Miscellaneous expenses, Rs 29.568 cr on Expenses on virtual campaign through social media platforms/Apps/other means by party and Rs 23.368 cr on Expenditure incurred on publishing criminal antecedents of the candidate(s).
  
  
• Expenditure on Publicity is 33.93% of the overall expenditure declared under various heads.
  
  
• Expenditure on Other/Miscellaneous is 8.27% 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 Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand Assembly elections, political parties spent the maximum on Media Advertisement (Rs 182.6875 cr), followed by expenditure on Publicity Materials (Rs 39.7645 cr) and Public Meetings (Rs 10.43 cr).
  
  
•  Publicity expenditure from Central Headquarters is the highest, Rs 137.01 cr or 58.83% of the total expenditure on publicity, followed by Rs 28.749 cr or 12.34% from Punjab state units, Rs 21.414 cr or 9.20% from Uttarakhand state units, Rs 17.637 cr or 7.57% from Goa state units, Rs 17.386 cr or 7.47% from Uttar Pradesh state units and Rs 10.686 cr or 4.59% from Manipur 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 98.72% of their total travel expenses or Rs 136.842 cr on their star campaigners and the remaining 1.28% or Rs 1.776 cr on travel of their party leaders.
  
  
• Travel expenses from Central Headquarters by itself was Rs 79.311 cr or 57.216%, which was higher than the total travel expenses incurred from state units. Total travel expenses from Uttar Pradesh state Units were Rs 43.50 cr or 31.381% of the total expenses incurred.

Observations of ADR

1. The election expenditure statements of CPM, NPEP, SP, AIFB, IUML, JDU, LJSP, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), GFP, MGP, RSP are not available in the public domain despite contesting elections, with a total delay of more than four months.
   
   
2. It must be noted that out of 13 political parties analysed in this report, only SAD declared donations through electoral bonds worth Rs 50 lakhs in their election expenditure statement for the Assembly elections 2022.

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.

Contact Details

State Coordinators

Mr. Sanjay Singh Uttar Pradesh state coordinator +91-94151-14151 sanjays...@gmail.com   Dr Lenin +91-99355-99333 +91-99355-99330 le...@pvchr.asia   Mr. Mahesh Anand +91-94152-33694 +91-99367-47774 gramswar...@gmail.com

Mr. Manoj Dhyani Uttarakhand state coordinator +91-9756201936 +91-9412145589 rtinewsin...@gmail.com   Mr. BP Maithani +91-9012878346 maith...@yahoo.com

Mr.Jaskirat Singh Punjab state coordinator +91-93160-84953 jask...@gmail.com   Parvinder Singh Kittna +91 9814313162 pavik...@gmail.com

Mr Babloo Loitongbam Manipur state coordinator +91 9862008838 bloit...@gmail.com

Mr. Bhasker Assoldekar Goa state coordinator +91-98203-53159 vibhan...@hotmail.com

National Election Watch (NEW) & Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)

Media and Journalist Helpline   +91 80103 94248 Email: a...@adrindia.org

Maj Gen Anil Verma (Retd.) Head - NEW & ADR   +91 8826479910 anil...@adrindia.org

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar IIM Ahmedabad (Retd.)   Founder Member- NEW & ADR   jchh...@gmail.com

Prof Trilochan Sastry IIM Bangalore   Founder Member - NEW & ADR   +919448353285, tsa...@gmail.com

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