new delhi is the congress just maabeta ki party toi analysed partys poll expenditure for recent elections the last available was that of the karnataka assembly polls in which party president sonia gandhi and her son rahul had incurred expenses of rs 344 crore on their tours details of bjp were not available this may not too big a figure to write about but a comparative study with what the party spent on other leaders shows how expenditure is heavily tilted towards the first family of the congress the combined tour expenses of all congress leaders during the karnataka polls was rs 351 lakh less than 2 of what was spent on the congress president and her son not that the party coffers had little to spare as of may 2013 the party has told ec it had a bank balance of rs 437 crore bjp has not yet submitted its details of election expenditure for karnataka polls and both congress and bjp have so far not submitted any details of their poll expenditure for any elections held thereafter according to election commission guidelines parties have to submit their expenditure accounts to the commission within 75 days of the conclusion of assembly elections and in case of parliamentary polls it should be submitted within 90 days already the poll watchdog has sent reminders to defaulting parties including the bjp congress and the aam admi party for not submitting expenditure details for assembly elections held in 2013 in five states of delhi chhattisgarh madhya pradesh mizoram and rajasthan in case of bjp it has sent repeated reminders for not making available details of even karnataka polls sources within the ec said the commission is likely to emphasise on more transparency in parties expenditure and contribution receipts this may include seeking amendments in the representation of people act making it mandatory for parties to declare both their contribution receipts and expenditure real time the law commission too has been working on a comprehensive recommendation on electoral reforms that includes bringing transparency to parties fund collection as of now most of the parties dont declare who are their donors as per existing rules only those contributions which are in excess of rs 20000 are to be disclosed before the ec along with the name of the donor it is not surprising most of the parties declare that all their contributions are less than rs 20000 each even congress and bjp have up to 90 of their funds collected from undisclosed contributors the latest contribution report submitted by parties to the ec is for 201213 where declared donations in excess of rs 20000 show bjp has received rs 8282 crore and congress rs 1142 crore these contributions however are just a fraction of what the parties actually receive upto 90 of the funds of these parties come through sale of coupons and other sources where the donors names are not disclosed before any authority in some cases like the bsp the party has claimed