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At Rs 644 cr, BJP has lion's share of donations in Gujarat
As Gujarat braces for an election this year, it would be interesting to see the donations received by the political parties in the state, and the list of candidates who have a criminal background, says Vicky Nanjappa
An analysis of the total income and donations prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Gujarat Election Watch shows that the Indian National Congress has shown a total income of Rs 183.82 crore in Gujarat compared with the Bharatiya Janata Party's income of Rs 644.77 crore in the state over four years from 2007-08 to 2010-11.
The report also shows that the highest share of donations from the total income among the two national parties is for the BJP (83.75 per cent) while the INC has shown that their share of donations received from the total income is a mere 12.31 per cent.
The INC has received close to 1,171 crore from 'sale of coupons'. It has declared its total number of contributions to be 916 between 2007-2008 and 2010-2011.
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The top three donors
2009-2010
Indian National Congress
General electoral trust: Rs 13.95 crore
Electoral Trust: Rs 5.64 crore
Infrastructure Development and Consultant (I) (P) Ltd: Rs 5.50 crore
Bharatiya Janata Party:
General electoral trust: Rs 16.60 crore
M/s Asianet V Holding Pvt Ltd: Rs 10 crore
Torrent Power Ltd: Rs 5.50 crore
2010-2011
Indian National Congress
Torrent Power Ltd: Rs 2.3 crore
Russel Credit Ltd: 1.5 crore
ITC Ltd: 0.5 crore
The BJP
Torrent Power Ltd: Rs 3 crore
Sai Regency Power Corporation Pvt Ltd: Rs 1.2 crore
Lodha Construction: Rs 1 crore
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The candidates
During the assembly elections in 2007, a total of 1,268 candidates contested, of which the data of 544 candidates was analysed. Out of the 544 candidates analysed by the Gujarat Election Watch, 124 have pending criminal cases against them.
The INC had 50 out of 172, the BJP had 36 out of 180, Independent Labour Party had 20 out of 100 (and the Bahujan Samaj Party had 9 out of 54 (17 per cent of total analysed) candidates with pending criminal cases.
Out of these, 124 candidates had pending criminal cases, 48 had pending serious criminal cases such as murder, attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery, extortion etc. The BJP had 19, the INC had 15, and the IND had 7 candidates with pending serious criminal cases.
There were 113 Indian Penal Code charges of serious nature on the candidates which included murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft etc.
A total of 117 candidates out of 544 analysed, i.e. 22 per cent were crorepatis, while 6 candidates declared zero assets. A total of 10 candidates out of 544 analysed declared liabilities of Rs 1 crore or above.
Among major parties, the average asset per candidate for the INC was approximately 4.14 crore each, for the BJP it was 1.44 crore and for the BSP it was 22.96 lakh.
Forty four per cent of candidates (242 of 544 analysed) did not furnish PAN card etails. The total number of women candidates who contested in the Gujarat assembly elections 2007 was a mere 88 compared with 1,180 male candidates, i.e. only 7 per cent of the candidates were women.
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