According to the election rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), five regional parties have announced that they have received a donation of Rs 250.60 crore through electoral bonds in 2020-21. According to the latest ADR report, the total income of 31 regional parties in the financial year 2020-21 stood at Rs 529.416 crore and their total declared expenditure was Rs 414.028 crore. The five parties that spent the most that year are DMK (Rs 218.49 crore), TDP (Rs 54.769 crore), AIADMK (Rs 42.37 crore), JDU (Rs 24.35 crore), and TRS (Rs 22.35 crore).

The total income of the top five parties is Rs 434.255 crore
The top five parties have a total income of Rs 434.255 crore, which is 82.03 percent of the total income of the political parties analyzed collectively, the report said. Under voluntary contributions, political parties collected Rs 250.60 crore or 47.34 percent of their income from donations through electoral bonds, while other donations and contributions stood at Rs 126.265 crore or 23.85 percent for the financial year 2020-21. Of the 31 regional parties analyzed, only five announced donations through electoral bonds. The report said that out of the total income of 31 regional parties during the financial year 2020-21, interest income was Rs 84.64 crore or 15.99 percent.

The total income of 29 of the 31 parties declined from Rs 800.26 crore in FY 2019-20 to Rs 520.492 crore in FY 2020-21, a decline of 34.96 percent. The ADR said that there are 17 regional parties that have declared the remaining part of their income for the financial year 2020-21. It added that the audit report of the BJP in national parties for the financial year 2020-21 was not available on the website of the ECI at the time of preparation of this report.