The donations received by the national parties of the country in the last 16 years, more than Rs 15,000 crore, have no clue where they came from. Political parties do not have any documents about who is giving such a huge amount of donations. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an organization working towards electoral reform, has claimed this in the report released after its new analysis. It has said that between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, it raised more than Rs 15,077 crore from undisclosed sources. According to the ADR, in 2020-21, national and regional parties raised a total of Rs 690.67 crore from undisclosed sources. The organization analyzed funds received from undisclosed sources by eight national and 27 regional parties.

View List of National and Regional Parties
National parties include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and National People’s party (NPP). On the other hand, regional Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), DMK Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India AIADMK Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Janata Dal (United), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are prominent.

View account of last financial year
The analysis is based on income tax returns (ITRs) filed by the parties and affidavits regarding donations before the Election Commission of India (ECI). It showed that between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, national parties received Rs 15,077.97 crore from undisclosed sources. “In the financial year 2020-21, eight national parties have reported receiving Rs 426.74 crore from undisclosed sources, while in the case of 27 regional parties, the amount is Rs 263.928 crore,” the ADR said.

Congress is at the fore in hiding the identity of the donors
According to the organization, in the financial year 2020-21, the Congress has disclosed receipt of Rs 178.782 crore from unknown sources, which is 41.89 percent of the total amount received by the national parties from unknown sources. According to the ADR, the BJP has declared Rs 100,502 crore as income from unknown sources, which is 23.55 per cent of the total amount received by the national parties from unknown sources.

Most ‘secret donations’ to YSR Congress among regional parties
The top five regional parties that received the highest amount from undisclosed sources are YSR-Congress (Rs 96.2507 crore), DMK (80.02 crore), BJD (67 crore), MNS (Rs 5.773 crore) and AAP (5.4 crore), the organization said. . According to the ADR, in 2020-21, out of the total amount of Rs 690.67 crore received by national and regional parties from unknown sources, 47.06 per cent was from electoral bonds.

Error in audit report of seven political parties
The organization said that between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, the Congress and the NCP raised a total of Rs 4,261.83 crore from the sale of coupons. According to the ADR, there are several discrepancies in the audit and donation reports of seven political parties for the financial year 2020-21. These parties include TMC, CPI, AAP, SAD, Kerala Congress (M), All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).