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Electoral Bonds: TRS Top Gainer among Regional Parties

ADR said under voluntary contributions, political parties collected 50.97 per cent or Rs 447.498 crore of their income from donations through Electoral Bonds.

New Delhi: Regional political parties declared an income of Rs 877.957 crore for the financial year 2019-20, and 50.97 per cent of their income came through Electoral Bonds, a report said. More than half of the total income declared belonged to five political parties with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the lead.

An analysis of income received by 42 regional political parties by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said under voluntary contributions, political parties collected 50.97 per cent or Rs 447.498 crore of their income from donations through Electoral Bonds. Other donations and contributions amounted to Rs 228.828 crore, which is 26.06 per cent of the total declared income.

Only 14 of the 42 Regional Parties that were analysed declared donations through Electoral Bonds.

Telangana’s ruling party TRS had the highest income among regional parties in the financial year 2019-20 and declared an income of Rs 130.46 crore, 14.86 per cent of the total income of regional parties; followed by Shiv Sena with an income of Rs 111.40 crore, which is 12.69 per cent of the total.

The other top parties, included Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress party which declared an income of 92.73 crore (10.56 per cent), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that declared Rs. 91.53 crore (10.43 per cent), and Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal which declared Rs. 90.35 crore (10.29 per cent).

AIADMK reported the highest increase in its income of Rs 61.506 crore, followed by DMK and AAP which declared a total increase of Rs 38.557 crore and Rs 30.337 crore respectively, between 2018-19 and 2019-20.

“Given the anonymity provided to donors by the scheme, it is seen that Electoral Bonds have emerged as the most popular mode of donations to Regional Political parties for financial year 2019-20,” the report said.

The report added that as per the data shared by SBI in response to ADR’s RTI application, Electoral Bonds worth Rs 3,429.5586 crore were redeemed by parties in 2019-20. Of this, 87.29 per cent was received by four National Parties – BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress and NCP.

The total amount of Electoral Bonds declared by National and Regional parties for 2019-20 so far is Rs 3,441.324 crore.

“The difference in the amount declared by political parties and data on Electoral Bonds redeemed received from SBI could be due to the manner in which parties report in their audit report,” the report said.

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