Patna,(BiharTimes): The Congress party got the maximum donation for the 2010 Assembly election in Bihar to be followed by the BJP and other regional parties.

According to National Election Watch (NEW) political parties in Bihar had received Rs 112 crore as donations between September 9, 2010 and November 26, 2010 but they spent only Rs 78 crore.

Mashqura Fareedi, programme officer, NEW, while releasing a report based on information received under the Right to Information Act (RTI), said here on Saturday that the Congress spent Rs 19.59 crore
out of Rs 47,55 crore received as donation on publicity, which constituted 43.08% of the total expenditure of the party, followed by Rs 12.20 crore for helping the candidates.

The BJP spent Rs 8.89 crore out of Rs 25.84 crore it received as donation on publicity, which was 34.40% of its total election expenditure.

The JD (U) is the only party which spent more on travel expenses  Rs 3.64 crore, out of Rs 9.07 crore and Rs 2.4 crore on publicity. It spent the maximum amount on advertisements for publicity at Rs 2.4 crore and only Rs 20,000 on printed materials.

While the RJD has not filed details of expenditure during the elections to the Election Commission of India Samajwadi Party, a very small party in Bihar, declared that it did not incur any expenditure on publicity and travel.

The regional parties received Rs 3.42 crore but claimed to have spent Rs 11.88 crore. The CPI and the CPM are the only two national parties to submit a break-up of expenses under various heads at the state, district and constituency levels, while all the remaining parties submitted a consolidated expenditure statement only.

The Congress spent Rs 10.92 crore on helicopters and aircraft, while the BJP spent Rs 3.58 crore and JD (U) Rs 3.54 crore on this count.

The Congress had spent Rs 11.63 crore on electronic media, including hiring time slot spots on private channels, followed by Rs 5.63 crore on advertisements in newspapers and magazines. The BJP had spent Rs 1.58 crore on the cutouts of various leaders, while Congress spent Rs 2.32 crore on this head.

Smaller parties like Bahujan Samaj Party spent Rs 81 lakh and Nationalist Congress party (NCP) Rs 31 lakh on the cutouts of their leaders. The JD (U) did not spend a single pie on the cutouts of chief minister Nitish Kumar, the report said.

The NEW said sources of income of the political parties were not known in most of the cases as they claimed they received donations up to Rs 20,000 from individuals. The political parties got donations even from public sector undertakings as well as abroad during elections, which was against the election laws. For example, a Gujarat government undertaking had financed BJP in the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections.

The report said 97.18% of the funds received by Congress for Bihar elections was by way of cash and only 2.82% through cheques.

JD (U) received Rs 55 lakh in cash and Rs 1.58 crore by cheques. The BJP got 51.24 % of money in cash and only 7.48% by cheque.