Heard of Sardar Patel Party? Well, income-tax department probed it for Rs 56 crore donation in 2022
MUMBAI: Money and politics go hand in hand. Among Lok Sabha contenders from Mumbai, three are from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Party (SVPP), a registered unrecognised political party that was investigated by the income-tax department two years ago along with 200 other such parties for indulging in tax evasion by collecting donations through banking channels from their clients and returning the amount in cash after deducting commissions.
SVPP had no visible activity but had received a Rs 55.5 crore in donation when it was raided by tax officials in 2022, according to income-expense details submitted to the Election Commission that year. All three candidates of SVPP have shown nil income in poll affidavits; they do not own any vehicle, and two of them have submitted that they do not even have a house.
TOI visited the residence of one of the candidates, 60-year-old Kamlesh Vyas, in a Borivali housing society. He was not at home, and his wife was unaware that he was contesting the election from Mumbai North constituency. None of the other residents in the society appeared to know anything either.
Over the phone, Kamlesh said that he was not an expert to talk about the party’s I-T case but would discuss his work afterwards. He did not call back.
Accepted electoral bonds in bid to increase vote share, says SVPP founder
Apart from Kamlesh Vyas, 38-year-old Mahesh Sawant is Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Party’s candidate from Mumbai South Central, whereas 45-year-old Bhavani Chaudhary is the candidate from Mumbai North East.
SVPP runs from a hole-in-the-wall photocopying centre in a chawl in Borivali East. Its founder, Dashrath Parikh, said all political parties are linked to “wrongdoing” of donations. He said, “We had four corporators in Gujarat and were trying to increase our vote share to fulfil the requirements under Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 and thus accept donations through electoral bonds.”
He said the I-T cases are still pending and declined to comment further. “We spent lots of the money on party work, as travelling, purchasing flags, and other election-related activities require money,” Parikh said.
The party told EC it spent the Rs 55.5 crore it received in 2022 on various activities, including Rs 10 crore on education, Rs 15 crore on food, Rs 16 crore on winter clothes, and Rs 11 crore on relief to poor.
According to I-T sources, most such parties are allegedly formed in connivance with hawala operators, mainly for tax evasion. They collect money from clients of hawala operators as donation and then return the money to the respective client in cash after deducting their commission. Party leaders receive 0.01% of the total amount as commission. The hawala operator manages the accounts of these parties and collects their fee separately from the client. The clients avail up to 100% tax deduction on the donated amount under Representation of the People’s Act.