The recent call of the Election Commission of India (ECI) for strict guidelines for political parties in terms of accepting donations and maintaining their logbooks has apparently gone for a toss in Jharkhand. All the three major regional players in Jharkhand — JMM, AJSU and JVM — have failed to come clean on this issue.
As per the annual audit report filed by the Babulal Marandi-led JVM, the party received total Rs 12,41,075 as income from all sources during 2015-16 but went on spending Rs 44.97 lakh!
Even worse is the case of the JMM and the AJSU that conveniently chose not to pay any heed to the frequent reminders sent by the ECI about filing the annual audit report. The AJSU that had not filed the report even during 2014-15, went into hibernation this year as well, though reminded five times by the ECI in this regard. The latest one in the series came on October 7 and finally, the Commission went on publishing the list on December 7.
The situation is not any different when it came accepting donations by these parties. For the current year, the JMM, the largest regional political party of the State, showed ‘Nil’ in its accounts. The JVM and the AJSU also followed the suit and looked the other way when it came fulfilling the important regulatory provision under the Income Tax rules meant for political outfits.
The JMM that had updated the Commission about its balance sheet in the annual audit report during 2014-15, showed Rs 10,55,55,739 as income and went on spending exactly the same amount. The JVM collected Rs 4,53,62,616 and spent Rs 4,49,90,952. The AJSU maintained the amusing silence here as well.
The JMM during 2014-15 showed only four donations made through cheque which is necessary in case the amount exceeds Rs 20,000. General Electoral Trust, Mumbai made donations to the party in the form of Rs 50,00,000 and Rs 25,00,000 through cheque without PAN. And the other two donations came from Progressive Electoral Trust, Mumbai amounting Rs 87,78,689 and Rs 1,00,93,750. Interestingly, the Shibu Soren-headed party received crores in cash but below the threshold limit set at Rs 20,000 which does not attract details to come in public domain.
The Sudesh Mahto-headed AJSU has just once filed any report related to income and expenditure in the form of statement of election expense during the 2014 lok Sabha polls. It showed opening balance of Rs 27.24 lakh and Rs 31.53 lakh as gross receipt.
When enquired, a standard reply came from all the quarters. “The matter is with the Income Tax department. We are looking into it,” said JMM's general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya while JVM treasurer KK Poddar wanted some time to check with the details. Similarly, AJSU general secretary Umakant Rajak wanted to check with his office since he was outside.