NEW DLHI, Jan 28: It is not the Congress, but the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is the second richest party in India after the ruling BJP. The BJP declared assets worth ₹ 4,847.78 crore in financial year 2019-20, the highest among all political parties, followed by the BSP at ₹ 698.33 crore and the Congress at ₹ 588.16 crore, according to the data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), poll reforms advocacy group.
The ADR prepared its report based on its analysis of assets and liabilities of national and regional parties in 2019-20. According to the analysis, the total assets declared by the seven national and 44 regional parties during the financial year amounted to ₹ 6,988.57 crore and ₹ 2,129.38 crore, respectively.
Among the seven national parties, the highest assets were declared by the BJP (Rs 4847.78 crore or 69.37 per cent), followed by the BSP (Rs 698.33 crore or 9.99 per cent) and the Congress (588.16 crore or 8.42 per cent), the ADR report said.
Among the 44 regional parties, the assets of the top 10 parties were worth ₹ 2028.715 crore or 95.27 per cent of the total declared by them all combined.
In the FY 2019-20, among the regional parties, the highest assets were declared by the Samajwadi Party at ₹ 563.47 crore (26.46 per cent), followed by the TRS at ₹ 301.47 crore and the AIADMK at ₹ 267.61 crore.
Fixed Deposits/FDR constituted the largest share of ₹ 1,639.51 crore (76.99 per cent) of the total assets declared by regional parties in the FY 2019-20. Under the FDR/Fixed Deposits category for the financial year, the BJP and the BSP declared ₹ 3,253.00 crore and ₹ 618.86 crore, the top two among all national parties, while the Congress declared ₹ 240.90 crore.
Among regional parties, political parties such as the SP (Rs 434.219 crore), TRS (Rs 256.01 crore), AIADMK (Rs 246.90 crore), DMK (Rs 162.425 crore), Shiv Sena (Rs 148.46 crore), BJD (Rs 118.425 crore) among others declared highest assets under FDR/Fixed Deposits.
The total liabilities declared by the seven national and 44 regional parties for the FY 2019-20 amount to ₹ 134.93 crore.
“The National Political Parties declared the total liabilities of ₹ 74.27 crore in FY 2019-20. National Parties declared ₹ 4.26 crore under Borrowings and ₹ 70.01 crore under Other Liabilities and in the FY 2019-20, Congress declared the highest total liabilities of ₹ 49.55 crore (66.72 per cent) followed by AITC that declared ₹ 11.32 crore (15.24 per cent),” the ADR said.
Regional political parties declared total liabilities of ₹ 60.66 crore in FY 2019-20, it said. “Regional Parties declared ₹ 30.29 crore under Borrowings and ₹ 30.37 cr under Other Liabilities and in the FY 2019-20, TDP declared the highest total liabilities of ₹ 30.342 crore (50.02 per cent) followed by DMK that declared ₹ 8.05 crore (13.27 per cent),” the analysis said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
