Skip to main content

SP, DMK and TRS accounted for 46% of all regional parties' incomes: ADR

By A Representative
An analysis of the officially declared income of 37 regional parties in the financial year (FY) 2017-18 shows that it was Rs 237.27 crore. Of this, Samajwadi Party (SP) reported having the highest income of Rs 47.19 crore, which forms 19.89% of the total income of all 37 regional parties, closely followed by DMK Rs 35.75 crore or 15.07% and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) whose income was Rs 27.27 crore or 11.49%.
Overall, in FY 2017-18, the total income of top  regional parties (SP, DMK, TRS) alone amounted to Rs 110.21 crore, which comprised 46.45% of the total income of 37 regional parties, collectively.
The total expenditure of all the 37 regional parties in FY 2017-18, was Rs 170.45 crore, says the analysis carried out by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) based on audit reports these parties submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI). Top three regional parties that incurred highest expenditure were SP which spent Rs 34.54 crore, followed by DMK Rs 27.47 crore and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Rs 16.73 crore.
The analysis further shows that DMK, TRS and YSR-Congress saw the maximum increase in income of Rs 31.97 crore, Rs 23.48 crore and Rs 13.30 crore, respectively, in their income from FY 2016-17 to 2017-18. It adds, during FY 2017-18 out of the 37 regional parties, only JDS declared receiving an income of Rs 6.03 crore from contributions through electoral bonds.
In all, there are 48 regional parties which were considered for analysis. Of these, 20 had submitted their audit reports on time, while 17 delayed their submission by several days, ranging from 1 day to 110 days. Audit reports of 11 regional parties for FY 2017-18 are unavailable on the website of the ECI.

Comments

TRENDING

Gujarat Sachivalaya blacklists, denies entry to woman social activist: Will NHRC probe?

By Kantilal Parmar*  I have approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into a serious incident that took place at the Gujarat Secretariat in Gandhinagar on August 18, 2026. The matter concerns social activist and women’s rights leader Chandrikaben Solanki, who, according to the information available to me, was denied an entry pass to the Secretariat when she went there to meet Gujarat’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Dr. Manishaben Vakil, to raise an issue concerning social justice.

Tibetan activist’s self-immolation sparks fresh concerns over cultural rights

By Kumar Krishnan*  The question of Tibet has once again entered international discourse, raising difficult questions about human rights, religious freedom, cultural identity, language, and the relationship between political power and the rights of indigenous communities. On 20 August 2026, the Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile jointly organised a solidarity prayer service and peace march to mark the 49th day since the death of Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan activist who died after self-immolating on 2 July in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

IMF's policies 'stabilise' external creditors' balance sheets, 'generate' crisis in Africa

By Grieve Chelwa, Vijay Prashad   Across Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents itself as the custodian of macroeconomic stability. Its latest Article IV staff reports on Ethiopia . Malawi , Nigeria , South Africa , and Zambia are written for economies with very different histories and institutions. Yet they converge on a familiar prescription: fiscal consolidation, tighter monetary policy, market-determined exchange rates, subsidy reform, deregulation and ‘private-sector-led growth’. No serious economist can dismiss macroeconomic stability.