Over three-fourths of incomes of state parties came from unknown sources in 2021-22, says report

 State parties with the highest share of funds from unknown sources are DMK and BJD

Pheroze L. Vincent, TT, New Delhi, 17.05.23: More than three-fourths of the incomes of state parties came from unknown sources in 2021-22, an analysis by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms shows.

While this proportion was lower (about two-thirds) for the national parties, the volumes of their funds from untraceable sources were much higher.

In its report, "Analysis of Sources of Funding of Regional Parties of India, FY 2021-22", released on Tuesday, the ADR said the total income of the 27 regional (state) political parties whose accounts for 2021-22 were analysed was Rs 1,165.58 crore.

Of this, the "total income of political parties from unknown sources (income specified in the audit reports whose sources are unknown): Rs 887.551cr, which is 76.147 per cent of the total income of the parties".

Only half the state parties in India were analysed as many had not submitted reports for fiscals 2020-21 or 2021-22, or had discrepancies in their submissions to the Election Commission of India.

In March, the ADR had released the accounts submitted by the national parties for 2021-22. It found that the total income of the eight national parties at the time was Rs 3,289.34 crore.

It added: "Total income of political parties from unknown sources (income specified in the annual audit report whose sources are unknown): Rs 2,172.231cr, which is 66.04 per cent of the total income of the parties."

The state parties with the highest share of funds from unknown sources were the DMK and the BJD. Unknown sources contributed 96.01 per cent of the DMK’s income of Rs 318.75 crore, and 94.73 per cent of the BJD’s income of Rs 307.29 crore.

Among the then national parties, Trinamul (which recently lost its national party status) topped the list: 96.77 per cent of its income of Rs 545.75 crore was from unknown sources.

In the same fiscal, the BJP — the richest party with an income of Rs 1,917.12 crore — received 60.56 per cent of its income from unknown sources. The Congress, the third-richest (after the BJP and Trinamul), received 71.84 per cent of its income of Rs 541.28 crore from unknown sources.

The unknown sources include: "'Donations via Electoral Bonds', 'sale of coupons', 'relief fund', 'miscellaneous income', 'voluntary contributions', 'contribution from meetings/ morchas', etc."