The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reported the highest income among national parties for the financial year 2023-24, declaring total earnings of Rs 4,340.47 crore. According to a report by the poll rights body Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), BJP’s earnings accounted for a whopping 74.57% of the total income generated by six national parties during the period under review.
“The BJP declared a total income of Rs 4,340.473 crore during FY 2023-24 but spent only 50.96 per cent of it, amounting to Rs 2,211.69 crore. The total income of Congress was Rs 1,225.12 crore, while its expenditure for the year was Rs 1,025.25 crore or 83.69 per cent of its total income,” the report said.
Major chunk of income from donations
A large portion of the income for national parties came from donations through electoral bonds. While the BJP received the highest amount, securing Rs 1,685.63 crore, the Congress received Rs 828.36 crore, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rs 10.15 crore. Collectively, these three parties raised Rs 2,524.14 crore through the electoral bond scheme, which the Supreme Court struck down as “unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary” in May last year.
As per the data shared by the State Bank of India in response to an RTI application filed by the ADR, Rs 4,507.56 crore worth of electoral bonds were redeemed by various political parties in the 2023-24 fiscal. The national parties accounted for 55.99 per cent — Rs 2,524.1361 crore — of this amount.
