VIJAYAWADA: The ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has reported a sudden increase in the party’s income by more than three times with Rs 285.07 crore in financial year 2023-24 against Rs 63.9 crore during financial year 2022-23. The party has become the fourth richest regional party and topped in receiving contributions and donations.
The opposition YSRCP received an income of Rs 191 crore (1.6 times increase) when compared to the previous financial year with Rs 74.78 crore. The data of income of regional parties was obtained from the Election Commission of India (ECI) and compiled in a report released by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Surprisingly, there was no mention of the incomes and expenditure submitted to ECI by the Jana Sena Party, founded by the present Deputy Chief Minister of the State, K Pawan Kalyan. The party was founded in 2013 and participated in elections twice in 2019 and 2024.
According to the report, Bhartiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS) topped the list with an income of Rs 685.5 crore, followed by All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) with Rs 646 crore, Biju Janta Dal (BJD) with Rs 297 crore, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with Rs 287 crore and Yuvajana Raithu Sramika Congress Party (YSRCP) with Rs 191 crore. The report also mentioned that TDP spent Rs 121 crore during the elections last year and YSRC spent Rs 295 crore against the income of Rs 191 crore.
“The total income of the 40 regional parties during 2023-24 was Rs 2,532 crore. The top five parties that have incurred the highest expenditure are YSRCP (Rs 295.7664 cr), followed by BRS (Rs 254.9 cr), AITC (Rs 231.4 cr), DMK (Rs 200 cr) and TDP (Rs 121 cr),” report claims.
The reports submitted to ECI revealed that more than 70 percent of the total income (Rs 1,796 cr) of the 40 regional political parties came from donations through electoral bonds (EBs).
“Of the total TDP’s income of Rs 285 crore, voluntary donations or contributions in the form of EBs amount to Rs 274.65 crore (96.34%) and interest on deposits with banks amounts to Rs 10.3 crore (3.6%) and remaining through interest on security deposit with electricity board and other income.
On the other hand, YSRCP received Rs 184.1 crore (96.38%) through voluntary donations and contributions and remaining through interest on fixed deposits.” YSRCP has submitted to ECI that they had spent Rs 265 crore on party-related programmes and another Rs 28.4 crore for election campaign expenditure.
TDP shared their expenses related to administrative and general expenses (Rs 35.38 crore, election expenditure (Rs 80.42 crore) and other expenditure Rs 4.36 crore).