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.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

India’s heatwave crisis: How concrete cities are fueling climate emergency

By Rajkumar Sinha* According to recent studies, urban areas are witnessing a much sharper rise in temperatures than rural regions. The planet is currently heading toward an additional 1.9°C of warming — far beyond the target envisioned under the Paris Agreement . A team of climate scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that India’s average temperature increased by nearly 0.9°C during the decade between 2015 and 2024 compared to the early twentieth century (1901–1930). In western and northeastern India, the hottest day of the year has already become 1.5°C to 2°C warmer since the 1950s.

Retired civil servants slam CJI’s remarks on environmental litigants

By A Representative An open letter issued on May 22, 2026, by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), comprising 71 retired civil servants from the All India and Central Services, has strongly criticized recent remarks made by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) against environmental litigants.

Counterview

Search This Blog