Brs: BRS received Rs 5,29 crore via poll bonds in 2022-23, DMK Rs 1,85 crore, YSRC Rs 52 crore | India News

NEW DELHI: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is in office in poll-bound Telangana, received contributions worth Rs 529 crore via the electoral bonds route in 2022-23, while DMK’s and YSR Congress Party’s inflows from bonds totalled Rs 185 crore and Rs 52 crore respectively in the same period.
As per contribution reports of 23 regional parties for the year 2022-23 — placed by EC in the public domain till Thursday — they together received over Rs 975 crore through contributions, of which almost 80% was from electoral bonds received by three parties, namely BRS, DMK and YSR Congress Party.

BRS has declared the highest contribution receipts in excess of Rs 20,000 from individuals and businesses as well as electoral bonds. Electoral bonds contributed 77% (Rs 529 crore) of its total receipts of Rs 683 crore for the year 2022-23, while Rs 90 crore was routed through the Prudent Electoral Trust. Tamil Nadu’s ruling party DMK’s Rs 20,000-plus receipts in the last fiscal add up to Rs 192 crore, of which 96% has come from bonds. YSR Congress Party, meanwhile, has declared total contributions (of Rs 20,000 and above) worth Rs 68 crore in 2022-23, of which 76% flowed from bonds and Rs 16 crore from Prudent Electoral Trust.

In 2021-22, BRS (then called Telangana Rashtra Samithi) had received Rs 153 crore from bonds, DMK Rs 306 crore and YSRCP Rs 60 crore.

Normally, political parties do not declare income from electoral bonds in their contributions reports, as that is not mandatory under Section 29C of Representation of the People Act, 1951. The total receipts from bonds must however be declared in the parties’ annual audit reports; though the source and amount of individual contributions through bonds are not required to be disclosed. Yet, BRS, YSRCP and DMK have voluntarily included information about their receipts from bonds in their latest contributions reports filed with EC.

So far, contribution reports of only two national parties and 23 regional parties are available on the Election Commission’s website. Among the national parties, AAP has declared total contributions worth over Rs 31 crore. Bahujan Samaj Party, as usual, has declared nil contributions in excess of Rs 20,000 each.

Among the regional parties, Janata Dal (United)’s contribution receipts in excess of Rs 20,000 for the year 2022-23 totalled Rs 5.48 crore, TDP’s Rs 11.92 crore, Jannanyak Janata Party’s Rs 2.83 crore, Trinamool Congress’s Rs 2 crore, Shiromani Akali Dal’s Rs 1.4 crore, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s Rs 1.5 crore and Samajwadi Party’s Rs 26.9 lakh.