Blank cheque for parties, no check on their funds

POLITICALLY RICH: Political parties do not reveal all about their source of funds.

        

People who read this also read:

IT honchos missing on Bangalore poll day

IT industry was not the one leading the way in Bangalore polls.

• First phase polling ends, low turnout in Bangalore
• Names of voters holding cards missing from rolls

Featured Blog

Karnataka Blogs

Do IPS officers in karnataka lack courage to protest?

Featured Slideshows

Ads by Google

The Central Information Commission passed a landmark judgment a few days ago: it said that political parties’ accounts filed with the Income Tax department can be accessed by the public.

Political parties never have had to put up their balance sheets for public scrutiny. Each election they brazenly flout electoral norms on spending and never explain where their money is coming from.

Kupendra Reddy is a real estate developer in Bangalore and a major player in the city’s booming real estate business. Reddy is also the Congress candidate from Bommanahalli in the Assembly elections.

Reddy is one of the richest first-generation entrepreneurs in Bangalore, owning assets worth Rs 131 crore. He has Rs 49 lakh in cash and Rs 61 lakh in bonds and debentures.

He owns non-agricultural land worth over Rs 11 crore and commercial and residential buildings valued at over Rs 56 crore. His wife Pushpawati has assets worth Rs 54 crore in her name.

Does his immense wealth influence his politics? Reddy says no “I can earn a lot (and) I have already earned but as a politician I cannot earn. A politician can earn in business or on in real estate can earn but in politics they have to serve people,” says Reddy.

The real estate sector is estimated to have spent Rs 2,000 crore in south Karnataka this election and in north Karnataka the mining industry has pumped in as much as Rs 3,000 crore—a record-breaking violation of electoral norms on spending.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami says he knows well that parties are “breaching” rules. "I don't have any illusion that only a small section of the political class will be confining itself to the limits. I don't think others are,” says Gopalaswami.

“To the question on how much breach they make, sometimes it is two times a breach and sometimes 10 times but there is a breach,” he says.

Politics and business make a deal

Parties spend and business funds them. Contribution reports filed by political parties before the Election Commission show that industry is a major contributor of funds.

The Congress, between 2004 and 2006, received a bulk of its funds from industrial houses. Ranbaxy Labs gave it Rs 25 lakh, SRF Ltd. Rs one crore, Bharat Forge Rs one crore, Mahindra and Mahindra Rs 75 lakh, Bajaj Auto Rs one crore, Hero Honda Rs 25 lakh, Larsen and Toubro Rs one crore and PSL Ltd Rs one crore.