BJP India's richest party with declared assets worth Rs 893 crore, Congress second: Report

Kolkata: The value of declared assets of BJP has increased from Rs 122.93 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 893.88 crore in 2015-16 while that of Congress has risen from Rs 167.35 crore to Rs 758.79 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 Rs 0.25 crore to Rs 44.99 crore during this 11-year period, according to the figures released by ADR and Election Watch at a press conference, quoting declarations by the parties before the Election Commission.

The total value of assets of CPM has increased during the period by 383.47 per cent from Rs 90.55 crore to Rs 437.78 crore, ADR national coordinator Anil Verma said. “The increase in value of assets of CPI has been the lowest, from Rs 5.56 crore to Rs 10.18 crore,” he said. The value of assets of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has gone up from Rs 43.09 crore to Rs 559.01 crore and that of Nationalist Congress Party from Rs 1.6 crore to Rs 14.54 crore, Verma said. Verma said that declarations under ‘other assets’ are not easily verifiable. “While details are specific under fixed assets, loans and advances, FDR/deposits, TDS 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 Rs 108.655 crore to Rs 1605.114 crore,” Verma said. “BJP has the highest capital at present after declaring Rs 868.889 crore, followed by Rs 557.38 crore of BSP and Rs 432.64 crore of CPM,” Verma said.