The popularity of the Grand Old Party, Congress has been on the downswing since 2013 with the BJP coming to power in 2014 backed by a thumping majority. The waining popularity of the Congress party, despite the several Rahul Gandhi ‘coming of age’ articles written by its friendly media, is evident from the fact that their income has plummeted massively in 2017-18 as compared to 2016-17, as reported by Bharti Jain of Times of India.
Times of India reported that Congress’ income fell to Rs 199 crores in 2017-18 as compared to Rs. 225 crores in 2016-17. The BJP, however, disclosed a receipt of Rs. 1027 crores in 2017-18 according to the Annual Returns filed to the Election Commission.
Of the Rs 199 crores received by Congress, only Rs. 5 crores have come from the election bond route. The Banks had issued election bonds of about Rs. 222 crores in 2017-18. Out of which, BJP has reportedly capitalised on 95% of the election bonds, cashing in Rs. 210 crores.
None of the other parties have reported any income from electoral bonds. CPM’s income stood at Rs 104.8 crore, BSP’s at Rs 51.7 crore, NCP at Rs 8.1 crore, Trinamool Congress at Rs 5.17 crore and CPI at Rs 1.55 crore.
According to the Times of India, Congress’ major share of revenue has come from the issue of coupons totalling Rs. 110 crores.
In the last financial year, Congress clocked an expenditure of Rs. 197 crores, at least on paper.
