48 REGIONAL PARTIES IN INDIA
20 SUBMIT REPORT ON TIME
17 DELAY BY SEVERAL DAYS
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SP >> Highest income of Rs 47.19 cr
DMK >> Has shown Rs 35.74 crore
TRS >> Has Rs 27.27 crore as income
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PROMINENTLY
NON-COMPLIANT
GOA
>> The Goa Forward Party
J&K
>> National Conference
>> People's Democratic Party
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PANAJI: The Goa Forward Party, a key ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government is among several regional parties who failed to submit the audited report of their finances to the Election Commission of India, an analysis of records compiled by ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) said.
The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) another key ally of the ruling BJP-led coalition government, also submitted their report 17 days after the October 30 deadline, according to the ADR Report of Non Compliance of Submission of Audited Report for 2017-18 by regional parties.
According to ECI rules, it is mandatory for political parties to submit details of their audited reports to the Commission.
Of the 48 regional parties, 20 had submitted their audit reports on time, while 17 delayed by several days, ranging from 1 day to 110 days. DMK has shown Rs 35.74 crore and TRS of Telengana has reported Rs 27.27 crore as income. The income of these top 3 parties - SP, DMK and TRS - amounted to Rs 110.21 cr, which comprises 46.45% of the collective income of the 37 regional parties.
The audit reports of 11 regional parties for 2017-18, including that of GFP are unavailable on the ECI website till date. Giving GFP company in this list of non-compliant parties are the two principal parties of Jammu and Kashmir - National Conference led by Omar Abdullah ad and PDP of Mehbooba Mufti.
Of the 37 regional parties whose records are available, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh reported the highest income of Rs 47.19 crores which represents almost 20 per-cent of the total income of all regional parties.
A year earlier in 2016-17, the total income of 34 regional parties was Rs 409.64 cr while in 2017-18 the income of 37 parties dropped by 42% to Rs 236.86 cr.
Interestingly, Janata Dal (Secular) which is in government in Karnataka and Janata Dal (United) which runs a government in Bihar, have more than 85% of their total income unspent.
Most of the income reported by the 37 regional parties came from voluntary contributions and donations.
The Deve Gowda led JDS, meanwhile, is the only party to declare receiving an income of Rs 6.03 cr from contributions through Electoral Bonds.
