Expansion

An analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms showed that national parties have accumulated over Rs 15,077.97 crore from undisclosed sources between 2004-05 and 2020-21. The total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources stood at Rs 690.67 crore for 2020-21. ADR examined the details of eight national parties and 27 regional parties for this analysis. National parties include Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Community Party of India Marxist (CPM), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and National People’s Party (NPEP).

These regional parties also earned money from unknown sources.

Regional parties include AAP, AGP, AIADMK, AIFB, AIMIM, AIUDF, BJD, CPI(ML), DMDK, DMK, GPF, JDS, JMM, KC-M, MNS, NDPP, NPF, RLD, SAD, SDF, Shiv Sena, SKM, TDP, TRS, YSR-Congress and PMK. An analysis done on the basis of income tax returns (ITRs) of parties and donation details filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI) found that between the financial years 2004-05 and 2020-21, national parties collected 15,077.97 undisclosed sources. Crores have been collected. For the financial year 2020-21, eight national political parties have declared income of Rs 426.74 crore from unknown sources and 27 regional parties have received income of Rs 263.928 crore from unknown sources.

Congress earned Rs 78 crore from unknown sources

During the financial year 2020-21, Congress declared Rs 178.782 crore as income from unknown sources, which is 41.89 per cent of the total income of national parties from unknown sources (Rs 426.742 crore). The BJP declared an income of Rs 100,502 crore from unknown sources, which is 23.55 per cent of the total income of the national parties from unknown sources. The top five regional parties in terms of undisclosed income are YSR-Congress Rs 96.2507 crore, DMK Rs 80.02 crore, BJD Rs 67 crore, MNS Rs 5.773 crore, AAP Rs 5.4 crore. Electoral bonds accounted for 47.06 per cent of the total income of Rs 690.67 crore.

The combined income of Congress and NCP from sale of coupons between the financial years 2004-05 and 2020-21 is Rs 4,261.83 crore, the ADR said. There are discrepancies in the audit and contribution reports of seven political parties for the financial year 2020-21. These seven parties include AITC, CPI, AAP, SAD, KC-M, AIFB and AIUDF.