Opening remarks (00:08)

According to the latest Gazette Notification issued by the Election Commission of India dated 15^th March, 2019, there are a total of 2,360 political parties registered with the Commission. 2,301 or 97.50% of registered political parties are Unrecognised Parties. Either newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in Assembly or General Elections to become a state party or those which have never contested in elections since being registered are considered unrecognised parties.  

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Welcome back to another episode of ADR Speaks! My name is Shelly Mahajan and I am a Senior Program Associate at ADR.

 

Introduction (00:54)

In this brand new episode, which is sixteenth in the podcast series launched by ADR, we look at the status of submission of contribution reports and the donations received by the registered unrecognised political parties during the FY 2017-18 and 2018-19. The episode will give insights into our latest report that analyses the contribution reports of 138 registered unrecognised parties whose donation statements were available in the public domain for either FY 2017-18 or FY 2018-19 or both at the time of preparation of the report.

 

Background (01:33)

The Election Commission of India issued transparency guidelines which were applicable to all political parties w.e.f 1^st October, 2014. As per these guidelines, all unrecognised parties are required to submit their requisite reports in the office of the respective State CEOs. On receipt of the reports from the state level unrecognised political parties, scanned copies of annual audited accounts, contribution reports and statements of election expenditure shall be uploaded on the websites of CEOs of the respective states, within 3 days of receipt of the same for viewing by the public.

However, ADR’s latest analysis has found that the contribution reports of only 78 or 3.39% of the total 2,301 registered unrecognised parties are available in the public domain for FY 2018-19, and for FY 2017-18, the reports are available for only 82 parties or 3.56% of the total registered unrecognised parties.

This is in violation of the aforesaid transparency guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India.

 

 

Key findings (02:48)

ADR analysed the donations received by the registered Unrecognised Parties for the FY 2017-18 and 2018-19 which resulted in the following findings:

1. Only 96% of registered unrecognised parties filed their contribution reports to the ECI for both FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19. Among the parties considered, only 22 submitted their reports for both years.

 

2. During FY 2017-18, only 39 or 1.69% of the total registered unrecognised parties submitted their contribution reports before the due date while in FY 2018-19, only 65% or 38 parties submitted their contribution reports on time.

 

3. In FY 2017-18, 41 registered unrecognised parties’ contribution reports were available after the due date. The delay in submission by these parties range from a minimum of one day to 514 days. During FY 2018-19, 40 parties delayed the submission of their contribution reports by a maximum of 393 days.

 

4. The registered unrecognised parties that were analysed declared a total of 6860 donations worth Rs 65.45 cr during FY 2018-19 and 6138 donations of Rs 24.6 cr for FY 2017-18, amounting to 12,998 total declared donations of Rs 90.05 cr in two years.
5. Of the total of 2,301 registered unrecognised parties as of 15 March’19, 653 parties or 28.38% belong to Uttar Pradesh, followed by 291 parties or 65% from Delhi and 184 or 8% from Tamil Nadu.
6. For FY 2018-19, the contribution reports of only 06% or 20 of the 653 total registered unrecognised parties of Uttar Pradesh are available in the public domain. For FY 2017-18, 1.68% or 11 parties’ contribution reports are available on the CEO website of Uttar Pradesh.
7. In case of Delhi, 19% or 18 registered unrecognised parties’ contribution reports are available in the public domain for FY 2017-18. However, none of the parties’ donation statements are available for FY 2018-19. As per ADR’s previously released report, the audit reports of all registered unrecognised parties of Delhi are also unavailable in the public domain for FY 2018-19.

 

8. 761 donations to the registered unrecognised parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 14.476 cr (16.076% of total donations) while 11,997 individual donors donated Rs 73.57 cr (81.699%) to the registered unrecognised political parties during the FY 2017-18 and 2018-19.

 

9. It is to be noted that 10,462 donations of a total of Rs 76.715 cr or 19% of the total amount contained incomplete cheque/DD details while 130 donations, amounting to Rs 0.30 cr contained undeclared information of the mode of contribution and formed 0.333% of the total donations declared by the parties.

 

10. Of the total 12,998 donations of Rs 90.05 cr declared by the registered unrecognised parties, parties did not declare PAN details of 1528 donations worth Rs 5.47 cr.

 

11. A total of Rs 54.206 cr (3511 donations) was donated to the unrecognised parties from Gujarat, followed by Rs 12.239 cr (6526 donations) from Maharashtra and Rs 3.294 cr (179 donations) from Uttar Pradesh.
12. Out of a total of 2,301 registered unrecognised parties, approx. 30 parties won seats in the current state assemblies and Lok Sabha. Of these 30 parties, only 3 parties’ contribution reports are available for FY 2017-18 or/and FY 2018-19.

 

Key take-away and Conclusion (07:42)

There is very little or no talk of the lack of strict adherence to the reporting and accounting framework (of political funding) by the registered unrecognised political parties and the complete absence of information of the funding and expenditure of several of these parties on the state CEO websites. At the same time what is worrying is that the number of registered unrecognised political parties has increased two fold in the last 10 years. From 1112 parties in 2010, the number has spiked to 2,301 in 2019. It is important to note that the number of such parties increases disproportionately during the year of Parliamentary elections especially.

In one of our earlier episodes we have also heard how out of 43 registered unrecognised parties that submitted details to ECI in sealed cover and whose vote share details were available, only one registered unrecognised party was found eligible to receive donations vide electoral bonds, as per the eligibility criteria mentioned in the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018.

In light of the above, it is imperative that the Election Commission of India and the respective state CEOs must ensure complete transparency in making the annual reports of unrecognised parties available on their websites and the action taken against parties for non-compliance. Such information must be readily accessible to the general public through the websites of the state CEOs and ECI. None of the State CEO websites other than Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Gujarat provide details of status of submission of contribution reports. Regulation of registration of political parties is crucial to avoid money laundering, corrupt electoral practices and abuse of money power. IT scrutiny of unrecognised parties should be taken up, especially of those which do not contest in elections but declare receipt of voluntary contributions.

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Well, that’s all for today’s episode. I hope you all found this useful and interesting. If you like our work, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on our website: adrindia.org and don’t forget to write to us at [email protected] with your feedback. We will be back with another amazing episode. Please stay tuned and thank you for listening.

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