The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has given details of donations received from unknown sources to political parties. According to the ADR reports, the national parties raised more than Rs 15,077 crore from undisclosed sources between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21. According to the ADR, in 2020-21, national and regional parties collected a total of Rs 690.67 crore from undisclosed sources.

The total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources stood at Rs 690.67 crore for 2020-21. The ADR released details of funds received from undisclosed sources to 8 national and 27 regional parties. National parties include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India-Marxist (MCP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and National People’s. party (NPP).

On the other hand, regional parties are 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.

The details are based on income tax returns (ITRs) filed by the parties and affidavits regarding donations before the Election Commission of India (ECI). It has been revealed that between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, the national parties received Rs 15,077.97 crore from unknown sources. In the financial year 2020-21, 8 national parties have reported receipt of Rs 426.74 crore from unknown sources, while in case of 27 regional parties, the amount is Rs 263.928 crore.

According to the ADR report, in the financial year 2020-21, the Congress received Rs 178.782 crore from unknown sources. Which is 41.89 percent of the total funds received by the national parties from unknown sources. Whereas BJP declared Rs 100.502 crore as income from unknown sources. Which is 23.55 percent of the total funds received by the national parties from unknown sources.

The top 5 regional parties that received the highest amount from unknown 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). In 2020-21, 47.06 percent of the total Rs 690.67 crore received by national and regional parties from unknown sources was from electoral bonds.

Between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, the Congress and the NCP raised a total of Rs 4,261.83 crore through coupon sales. There are discrepancies in the audit and contribution reports of seven political parties for the financial year 2020-21. These seven parties include AITC, CPI, AAP, SAD, KC-M, AIFB and AIUDF.