BJD 3rd richest regional party in country with 144% rise in assets: Report 

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is the third richest regional party in the country. The BJD is preceded by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). This was revealed in a report prepared by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) for fiscal 2021-22. BJD, which has been in power in Odisha for the last 24 years, increased its assets by 143.92 percent in a year, said the ADR report.

The ADR report titled ‘Analysis of Assets and Liabilities of Regional Parties is based on the assets declared by 44 regional parties for the financial year 2020-21, and 2021-22. 

The assets declared by the BJD in 2020-21 were valued at Rs 194.50 crore while the value of assets declared by the party in the year 2021-22 was at Rs 474.420 crore – a sharp jump of 143.92 percent.

According to the ADR report, the SP has become the richest party with assets valued at Rs 568.369 crore in the year 2021-22, followed by the BRS with assets worth Rs 512.24 crore.  

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Senior Journalist Prasanna Mohanty frowned upon the increasing value of assets of the political parties in a democratic set-up. “The increasing values of assets annually declared by the political parties are not a good sign for democracy.  The assets of the BJD are increasing and so also those of the other parties. In comparison to the previous years, assets of most of the political parties have sharply gone up.”

He also added that there should be transparency as the sources of funds, and political funding have triggered debates in the past. “In fact, funds are needed to run a political party, but transparency is also essential so that people can know how the party is being funded,” he added.