Patna, Sept. 5: Lalu Prasad's RJD has the most Assembly seats and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP most representation in Lok Sabha among Bihar-based parties, but Nitish Kumar's JDU is the bada bhai (big brother) when it comes to income and expenditure.

The party has topped the charts continuously between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

An analysis of audit reports of the three regional parties by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said that their total income during the five financial years was Rs 39.68 crore, of which the JDU earned the lion's share - Rs 30.87 crore or around 78 per cent. The RJD's income was just Rs 4.45 crore, though it has not submitted audit reports for 2013-14 and 2014-15. It is yet to respond to RTI applications for audit reports of these two years. The LJP, which finished third, showed Rs 4.36 crore in income but "zero" income during 2011-12 and 2012-13.

The ADR has not considered the BJP and the Congress, as both are national parties with much greater reach and sources of income spread across the country.

Donations were seen as the main source of income for all three with the JDU getting Rs 26.45 crore in donation, the LJP Rs 4.33 crore and the RJD 1.99 crore. Membership fees or subscription and interest on deposits were other sources. JDU leader Sharad Yadav donated Rs 2 crore to the party, in five years, and chief minister Nitish Kumar Rs 4.34 lakh. MLC Devesh Chandra Thakur donated Rs 1.1 crore and Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Rs 2.21 lakh. RJD and LJP leaders did not make any significant donations to their parties.

NEW's Bihar coordinator Rajiv Kumar said major donations for all three parties come from outside the state; trusts like New Delhi-based Satya Electoral Trust donate to all three parties and some donors have not declared their PAN numbers. The JDU got donations from seven states, mostly New Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh; the RJD receives donations from New Delhi and Bihar and the LJP only from New Delhi.

During the five-year period, the three parties spent most of their funds on elections. The JDU spent Rs 24.33 crore and 65 per cent of it was on polls. Most of it went in hiring helicopters and publicity. The RJD spent Rs 5.26 crore and over 73 per cent of it was on polls, publicity, meetings and its website. The LJP's expenses during the period was Rs 3.43 crore, of which around 59 per cent was on elections and hiring helicopters and over 11 per cent given to candidates.

"The EC has not ensured state-sponsored elections, hence the corporate donations," JDU spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar said. "It is natural for JDU to spend on poll management but our chief minister has emphasised on training party workers and we have taken steps for it."