Total income of 734 registered unrecognised political parties or RUPPs for the financial year of 2024-25 stood at Rs 1,118.494 crore. Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthan accounted for nearly 80.67% of that

Vijay Kumar Soni contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Rajasthan’s Bhilwara and got 1,347 votes, around 0.10 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency.

Soni was ranked last among 10 candidates and the NOTA button, but his Bhartiya Garib Vikas Kalyan Party is among the top five highest-earning registered unrecognised political parties in the country, beating the likes of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) which is running the government in Tamil Nadu and Prashant Kishore’s Jan Suraaj Party.

The Bhartiya Garib Vikas Kalyan Party was registered with the Election Commission in January 2024, barely four months before the Lok Sabha elections were held.

The party received Rs 170.0445 crore as donations for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) latest analysis of financial statements submitted by such registered unrecognised political parties puts the Rajasthan-based Bhartiya Garib Vikas Kalyan Party behind three other such parties, all from neighbouring Gujarat.

The New India United Party, Bharatiya National Janata Dal and Bhartiya Garib Vikas Kalyan Party accounted for 67.82 per cent of the total income declared by registered unrecognised political parties in the country.

Another political outfit, the Swatantra Abhivyakti Party registered in March 2021, has not shown any income for the 2024-25 fiscal year though it reported receiving Rs. 228.8098 crore as donations.

The New India United Party, which received Rs 270.9984 crore as donations, fielded candidates in two seats for the 2025 Bihar Assembly election and bagged 1,426 votes.

The Swatantra Abhivyakti Party, with Rs 228.8098 crore earned through donations, polled 12,741 votes in four Lok Sabha seats.

The Gujarat-based Bharatiya National Janata Dal had contested in three seats in this year’s Bengal Assembly polls and got 1,247 votes in total.

The total income of 734 such registered unrecognised political parties or RUPPs for the financial year of 2024-25 stood at Rs 1,118.494 crore.

Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthan accounted for nearly 80.67 per cent of that total reported income.

A total of 29 RUPPs all from Gujarat reported an accumulated income of Rs 510.4172 crore, the highest among all the states and Union Territories, followed by 73 in Delhi (Rs 218.483 crore) and 23 in Rajasthan (Rs 173.365 crore).

India has six national parties, 67 regional parties and around 2,074 RUPPS.

The ADR reported that of the 2,074 RUPPs in the country only 734 had their annual audit and contribution reports available in the public domain.

Around 65 per cent of the RUPPs have not made public their annual audit and contribution reports for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Bengal has 53 such RUPPs and only 23 of these have uploaded the annual audit and contribution reports on the chief electoral officer’s website.

According to the ADR report, the income of 15 top-earning RUPPs is comparable to 36 regional parties in the country.

Donations account for 85.08 per cent of the income for the six national parties, 58.87 per cent for the regional parties and 99.79 per cent for the top 15 RUPPs.

An RUPP does not get the same perks as national or regional parties. Such parties don’t have a fixed symbol, are not provided with a free copy of the electoral rolls, do not get free broadcast facilities on Doordarshan and All India Radio for election campaigns and are not allotted subsidised land to set up party offices.

Like the national and regional parties, the RUPPs enjoy complete exemption from paying income tax on the condition that they will submit the annual income tax returns to the IT department and submit details of all donations above Rs. 20,000 received during any financial year.

The tax exemption is allowed even if the unrecognised parties declare not receiving any donations above Rs. 20,000 from a single donor.

Whether recognised or not once a party is registered with the Election Commission they can continue to collect donations and enjoy the tax-exempt status, provided they meet the above conditions.

In August and September 2025, the Election Commission delisted 808 unrecognised parties for not contesting any elections in six consecutive years. On September 19, 2025 proceedings were initiated against 359 other unrecognised parties for failing to submit their annual audit and contribution reports.

Of the 530 RUPPs in Uttar Pradesh, the highest among all the 34 states and Union territories, around 57.36 per cent had not submitted either of the reports for the 2024-25 fiscal.

A total of 226 parties had submitted only one report.

A similar analysis released by the ADR in July 2025 had revealed that six such unrecognised parties had earned more from donations than the cumulative income of five national parties, excluding the BJP.

Five of those six RUPPS were based in Gujarat. The BBC had investigated these parties.