Declared assets of BJP, Congress, other political parties up

The value of declared assets of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has increased from ~122.93 crore in 2004-05 to ~893.88 crore in 2015-16 while that of Congress, it has risen from ~167.4 crore to ~758.8 crore, according to the NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Election Watch.

The value of assets of Trinamool Congress has seen a jump from ~0.25 crore to ~45 crore during this 11-year period, according to the figures released by ADR and Election Watch at a press conference here, quoting declarations by the parties before the Election Commission.

The total value of assets of Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M) has increased during the period by 383.5 per cent from ~90.55 crore to ~437.8 crore, ADR national coordinator Anil Verma said.

The increase in value of assets of CPI had been the lowest — from ~5.56 crore to ~10.2 crore, he said. The value of assets of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has gone up from ~43.1 crore to ~559 crore and that of Nationalist Congress Party from ~1.6 crore to ~14.5 crore, Verma said.

Verma said declarations under ‘other assets’ are not easily verifiable.

“While details are specific under fixed assets, loans and advances, fixed deposit receipt/deposits, tax deducted at source and investments, details are not available about assets under the heading ‘other assets’.

The increase in assets of the seven national parties from 2004-05 to 2015-16 has had the highest rise under ‘other assets’ among all asset heads — from ~108.7 crore to ~1,605.1 crore,” Verma said. “BJP has the highest capital at present after declaring ~868.9 crore, followed by ~557.4 crore of BSP and ~432.6 crore of CPI (M).”