The party ended up a bit richer at the end of the elections, with Rs2.43 crore. When elections were announced in March 2009, it had a balance of Rs1.63 crore.
For a party out of power for long, the Shiv Sena is not doing badly on the financial front. Despite the absence of routine channels of fund mobilisation for over a decade, the party’s coffer looks decently stacked, at least as far as polls are concerned.
Its Lok Sabha poll expenditure more than doubled in 2009 compared to 2004. The party, which won 11 of the 22 seats it contested in Maharashtra, spent nearly Rs8.16 crore in the last general elections, an RTI query revealed. In 2004, the party had spent Rs3.49 crore.
Interestingly, the party ended up a bit richer at the end of the elections, with Rs2.43 crore. When elections were announced in
March 2009, it had a balance of Rs1.63 crore.
According to the Shiv Sena’s submission before the Election Commission (EC), the party received Rs8.48 crore in donations. Over Rs4.14 crore of this was received in cash, while the rest came in the form of cheques and demand drafts.
The party forked out Rs2.72 crore — nearly a quarter of its poll-spend as submitted to the EC — on publicity. The expenditure included advertisements in newspapers and booking of time slots on television channels. Over Rs1.01 crore was spent on the electronic media and Rs1.37 crore on the print media. The rest went into printing material, cut-outs, hoardings and making and distribution of video films.
Almost 97% of the travel expenditure was on hiring of aircraft — out of Rs54.83 lakh spent on travel, Rs53.12 lakh was on air travel and the remaining Rs1.71 lakh on road transport. The main beneficiary of Sena leaders’ air travel was Bhopal-based Executive Airways Private Limited. The party paid Rs53.07 lakh to this company. The other beneficiary was the Dadar-based VV Lagu Travel Consultants.
The Sena claims it did not spend anything on processions, but it spent Rs21.74 lakh on public meetings and Rs51.36 lakh on running the party office. It has not shown any spend at the district or state level, or on individual candidates.
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