A study of the expenditure by the 22 main parties during last year’s general election and four concurrent Assembly polls has found that the BJP accounted for more than 45 per cent of the collective spend.

Also, the BJP received more than five-sixths of the total donations raised by these 22 parties during the polls, according to the report of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), accessed by The Telegraph.

Six of these parties, including the BJP and the CPM, showed higher bank balances after the polls, says the report, authored by CHRI director and RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak.

While this implies these parties spent less than the donations they raised during the polls, the report underlines the difficulties of ascertaining the correct expenditure figures, citing the huge seizures of illicit material and the possibility of much more having passed unnoticed.

The report analyses the expenditure statements submitted by political parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI) relating to the Lok Sabha polls and simultaneous Assembly elections in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The report is expected to be released soon.

The BJP has consistently spent the most in elections since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

“Overall, the 22 political parties covered by this study had ₹18,742.31 crores at their disposal for spending on their election campaigns,” the report says.

“This amount includes the funds they had in their kitty at the time of announcement of the elections and the donations they managed to raise during the election period.

“Collectively these political parties spent as much as ₹3,861.57 crores during the campaign period.

“Between the dates of announcement of the election schedule and the completion of elections, these political parties raised as much as ₹7,416.31 crores.

“BJP raised 84.5% of the total amount received by the 22 political parties in the form of donations.... BJP declared a total election expenditure of ₹1,737.68 crores…. Out of this, its expenditure incurred on the four Vidhan Sabha elections was ₹41.01 crores.”

The money spent was not always proportional to the seats won.

The report says the BJP won only 54.4 per cent of the parliamentary seats and 51.8 per cent of the Assembly seats that it contested. Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) spent just ₹1.11 crore and won all the five Lok Sabha seats it contested.

The Congress, with an expenditure equal to 39.5 per cent of the BJP’s, won 32 per cent of the parliamentary seats and 4.5 per cent of the Assembly seats it contested.

The Biju Janata Dal spent “more than 60% of the total expenditure incurred by the INC which had more candidates in the hustings for the Lok Sabha across the country and the four Vidhan Sabhas”. Yet, the regional party lost all the 21 Lok Sabha seats it contested and won only 51 of the 147 Assembly seats in Odisha.

“TDP declared spending only ₹35.66 crores on its election campaign but it won 16 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats it contested and rode to power with a landslide victory with 135 of the 175 seats it contested in the AP (Andhra Pradesh) Vidhan Sabha...,” the report says.

“On the other hand, BRS declared spending ₹120.14 crores on its campaign for 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. This is more than 2.5 times (actually, more than 3 times) what TDP spent on its Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha election campaign in AP. Nevertheless, BRS lost in all the constituencies where its candidates contested.”

The parties analysed include national and state parties whose reports are available on the Election Commission website.

The CHRI could not access the full statements of the CPI, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, J&K National Conference, J&K People’s Democratic Party, the NCP and Shiv Sena factions or the Shiromani Akali Dal, presumably because they had either not been submitted or were pending poll panel scrutiny.

“BJP declared having ₹5,921.81 crores in its kitty at the start of the electoral process… it ended up with more than ₹10,107 crores in its kitty at the completion of elections — a surplus of more than ₹4,185 crores,” the report says.

“TDP reported more than ₹207 crores in its kitty but ended up with ₹272.64 crores after spending on its campaign — a surplus of more than ₹65 crores. Similarly, CPI(M) declared starting its election campaign with more than ₹175 crores and reported closing the campaign with more than ₹184 crores in its kitty….”

Other parties with a surplus after the polls were Chirag Paswan’s outfit, the Sikkim Democratic Front and the Assam-based All India United Democratic Front.

Nayak has concluded that “the total worth of the illicit materials that were seized by flying squads and static surveillance teams is at least 2.5 times more than the collective election expenditure declared by the 22 political parties”.

“It is anybody’s guess as to how much of similar materials might have escaped seizure and seeped into the electoral process to illegitimately influence voters’ choice,” the report says.

“What is urgently required to test the veracity of the expenditure reports filed by these political parties is access to the four periodic reports which the ECI-appointed election expenditure observers filed from each constituency during these elections…. This author’s RTI application for the proactive disclosure of this information was rejected by the ECI in 2024 itself.”

The report adds: “If one political party corners the lion’s share of donations and contributions and is able to spend in a very big way, there is no level playing field for the other parties.

“This amounts to potentially gaining undue advantage at the hustings. It puts a big question mark on the freeness and fairness of these elections. Alternatives such as State-funding for political parties and capping donations to political parties must be discussed again and measures must be put in place to ensure a level playing field for all political parties.”