Strange as it might sound, Telugu Desam Party continues to get huge political funding, despite facing a humiliating defeat in the 2019 elections in Andhra Pradesh and suffering debacles in the local body elections as well.
What is more surprising is that the TDP had spent more than what it received funding from big business houses, apart from its own internal resources, despite being not so active politically because it is in opposition.
This was revealed during a study conducted by Association for Democratic Reforms for the year 2019-20 on the income and expenditure of various political parties in the country.
The compilation was done based on the figures submitted by the parties till March this year and the report was released on Monday.
The YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, which came to power in Andhra Pradesh with a thumping majority by winning 151 out of 175 assembly seats, received income in the form of political funding and party contributions to the extent of Rs 92.739 crore, which is 10.56 per cent of the total income of 42 regional parties in the country.
Interestingly, the income of the TDP led by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was marginally less compared to the YSRC. It received Rs 91.53 crore, which is 10.43 per cent of the total income of all the regional parties.
It clearly shows, the TDP continues to be the hot favourite of the political funders despite its debacle in the elections.
Another interesting aspect of the survey is that the TDP has spent Rs 108.84 crore, which is Rs 17.31 crore more than what it had received through donations and contributions.
This is rather surprising, because the TDP is an opposition party and its activities will be less compared to the ruling party.
What is more, Naidu and his son Lokesh were spending most of their time in Hyderabad and had not conducted many programmes. So, one wonders on what Naidu and his party had spent over Rs 100 crore in a span of one year!
“Maybe, Naidu spent the money on social media campaign and paying bribes to the media houses which support his party,” a YSRC supporter observed.
On the other hand, the YSRC is among those parties, which could not spend their income completely. In fact, ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, received the maximum amount of donations – Rs 130.46 crore during 2019-20, but it did not spend 84 per cent of its income!
