New Delhi : The three major national parties – the Congress, the BJP and the CPI-M – should give details about their “unknown sources” of income as huge funds are said to have been collected by them in the last few years, a Trinamool Congress MP said on Friday.
“I was most surprised when it came to light that a party like CPI-M could collect a staggeringly high amount of Rs.417.26 crore from 2005 to 2011 as accounted by the Marxist party itself in their audit report submitted with the Election Commission,” Swagat Roy told IANS here.
Of the amount the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), by its own admission, told the Election Commission that 53.8 percent of this amount was from “unknown sources”.
Earlier, Roy raised the issue during zero hour in the Lok Sabha and also levelled similar charges against Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The Congress audit accounts submitted to the Election Commission said of its Rs.598 crore shown as income in 2013-14, 82.5 percent earning was from unknown sources. For BJP out of Rs.673 crore and Rs.959 crore earning in 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively, 73 percent of the amount was from unknown source. So I raised it during zero hour today that these parties should come clean and reveal their unknown sources,” he said.
The five recognised national parties – BJP, Congress, CPI-M, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – were asked by the Election Commission in 2014 to submit details of audit accounts of their respective income.
Roy said: “The commission had also said that actions could be taken for non-submission of the audited account. So I raised the issue today.”
“I have the list of CPI-M contributors and they include the likes of promoters, resort owners and hoteliers,” he said.
In fact, CPI-M and other left party members clashed with Roy in the Lok Sabha when the submission was being made.
Among others, left members M.B. Rajesh and P.K. Teacher told Roy that they have contributed to the party fund. Responding to this, Roy said: “My objection is not to their contribution. I want to know who are unknown sources.”
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Mallikarjun Kharge were also present in the Lok Sabha when the Trinamool member was speaking.
Trinamool sources later said that Kharge also sought more details from Roy on the matter.