Poll READY! TRS Richest

Hyderabad: With elections about 18 months away, if not advanced, the two main contenders in the state -- TRS which wants to win for the third consecutive term and the BJP which dreams of coming to power -- are flush with funds. It is only the Congress which is not only facing a serious internal dissension but also facing fund crunch. The TDP is practically decimated in the state.

TRS is the richest political organisation in the state, followed by the BJP state unit. TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao has himself announced at the recently-held party plenary that the pink party is a rich party and the total assets are worth about Rs 1,000 crore, including its Delhi office site. The party has Rs 451 crore as fixed deposits and electoral bonds in two bank accounts, including State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

TRS earns Rs 3.84 crore per month as interest on the fixed deposits. Further, the party has reached a position of generating Rs 6,000 crore easily by collecting Rs 1,000 donation each from 60 lakh registered party workers.

Leaders said the ruling TRS has been receiving enough donations and funds from corporates liberally as the Telangana party has been in rule since 2014. After winning the second consecutive term in 2018, the flow of donations from various organisations has been increasing manifold. Not divulging the details or the names of donors, sources said that a few rich TRS leaders were contributing huge funds to the party for its regular operations.

TRS also gets donations through electoral bonds which have been on the rise in the recent years. Donations up to Rs 20,000 from unknown sources, which can be in the form of 'donations via Electoral Bonds', 'sale of coupons', 'relief fund', 'miscellaneous income', 'voluntary contributions', 'contribution from meetings/morchas' etc, have been on the rise for the last two-three years.

The BJP state unit is also maintaining a good financial position for the past three years. Besides receiving financial support from the BJP high command, the state leadership succeeded in mobilising funds and donations from different organizations. "A few top film personalities, including actors and film distributors, also contributed donations to the BJP in Telangana.

The total value of the BJP state unit assets is about Rs 300 crore, which includes nearly Rs 100 crore deposits. More donations are likely to flow before the elections. Sources said that BJP state unit president B Sanjay has developed a strong financial management system in the party to take on the TRS during the polls.

Unlike the ruling TRS and BJP, the Telangana Congress is in a miserable condition to run the party. The party has asked the district party presidents and Assembly constituency in-charges to take care of financial resources on their own as the state party unit is not able to support them. It is struggling to pay even the salaries of its employees in the state party office. Since it has been out of power since 2014, the flow of donations has also almost stopped.

If we look at the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the YSRCP and main opposition TDP are having good funds. The YSRCP declared a total income of over Rs 181 crore in the financial year 2018-19. Now it is estimated to be around Rs 300 crore. The main Opposition TDP is said to be having about Rs 150 crore funds.

The Congress in AP is nowhere to be seen. The Left parties are also struggling for funds in both the Telugu states.