ADR: Regional parties’ got 76% income from ‘unknown sources’

NEW DELHI: More than 76 per cent (Rs 887.55 crore) of the total earnings of recognised regional parties came from unknown sources in 2021-22 financial year, said the Association of Democratic Reform (ADR).

In the organisation’s definition, unknown sources include donations electoral bonds, sales of coupons, relief funds, miscellaneous income, voluntary contributions, and contributions from meetings because the details of donors are not available in the public domain.

Of the total, Rs 827.76 crore (93.26%) came from electoral bonds, while the income from the sale of coupons formed 4.32 per cent (Rs 38.35 crore) and voluntary contributions (below Rs 20,000) formed 2.40 per cent (Rs 21.29 crore).

Though 54 recognised regional parties were considered for the analysis, only half of them had filed both annual audit and contribution. The total income of these 27 political parties in FY 2021-22 amounts to Rs 1,165.58 crore, of which income from known donors is only Rs 145.42 crore (12.48%), the report said.

Among these parties, the DMK declared the highest unknown income of Rs 306 crore, followed by BJD of Odisha (Rs 291 crore) and TRS of Telangana (Rs 153 crore).