Source
Granthshala
Date
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-governmental organization working for electoral reforms, five regional parties have announced that they have received donations of Rs 250.60 crore through electoral bonds in 2020-21.
According to a latest report by ADR, 31 regional parties received a total income of Rs 529.416 crore in the 2020-21 financial year and declared their total expenditure of Rs 414.028 crore.
The five parties that spent the most that year were Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Rs 218.49 crore), Telugu Desam Party (Rs 54.769 crore), AIADMK (Rs 42.37 crore), Janata Dal United (Rs 24.35 crore), the report said. and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (Rs 22.35 crore). The report said that the total income of these top parties was Rs 434.255 crore, which is 82.03 percent of the total income of the political parties included in the analysis.
It said that through voluntary contributions, political parties raised Rs 250.60 crore or 47.34 per cent of their income from donations received through electoral bonds, while other donations and contributions raised Rs 126.265 crore, it said. The report said that out of 31 regional parties included in the analysis, only five declared donations from electoral bonds. It said that the total income of 29 of the 31 parties has come down from Rs 800.26 crore in the financial year 2019-20 to Rs 520.492 crore in the financial year 2020-21. It said that among the national parties at the time of preparation of the report, the audit report of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the financial year 2020-21 was unavailable on the website of the Election Commission.