India's richest political parties: RJD

Continuing our special series on India's richest political parties that set economic policy that determine investment decisions worth thousands of crores of rupees every year, today we take a look at the account books of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

One of the smaller parties, it wields tremendous influence in national politics thanks to our fractured polity and also to one of most colourful politicians, the rustic Laloo Yadav, tainted by corruption allegations and known for his quirky style and mass appeal.

The party having 24 MPs in Lok Sabha and 4 in the Rajya Sabha also is a crucial crutch supporting the UPA coalition.

RJD was founded in 1997 by Laloo Prasad Yadav. In 2008, RJD was granted the status of a recognised national level party following its performance in north-eastern states.

The party held power in Bihar for 15 years with both Laloo and his wife Rabri Devi taking charge as Chief Ministers in different terms.

In 2005, it suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (U)-BJP combine.

Looking at the party's financials, we find surprisingly that RJDs income appears to be modest.

In 2002-03, its income was Rs 57.2 lakh and fell to Rs 21.5 lakh in 2003-04.

Then, in 2004-05, it more than doubled to Rs 57.8 lakh, before zooming to a whopping Rs 3.6 crore in 2005-06, amazing for a party of its size.

In 2006-07, it was Rs 4.4 crore.

The party claims, most of the income comes in the form of contributions from supporters and party members.

Donations account for only Rs 75 lakh and the party mops up Rs 1.4 crore from its members as fees.

The growth of the party's assets over the years is unremarkable. In 2002-03, the party claims they were valued at Rs 66.2 lakh and slipped to Rs 41 lakh in 2003-04.

In 2004-05, they were valued at Rs 54.7 lakh, but they roseg four-fold to Rs 1.9 crore in 2005-06 and slid to Rs 1.6 crore in 2006-07.

Laloo Yadav's personal assets at Rs 85.3 lakh, as filed with the election commission in 2004 are a bit less than the party's.

The expenditure of the party was along familiar lines in 2006-07. Travel, vehicles and conveyance taking up Rs 2.75 crore, advertisements, Rs 1.08 crore, and meeting and conferences using up Rs 87 lakh.

No separate expenditure has been shown for the election activities.