The analysis conducted on the basis of the political parties' income tax returns and donations statements filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows that the sources remain largely unknown.

At present, political parties are not required to reveal the name of individuals or organizations giving less than Rs. 20,000 nor those who donated via Electoral Bonds. As a result, more than 36 per cent of the funds cannot be traced and are from ‘unknown’ sources.

ADR considered eight national parties and 27 regional parties for this analysis. The national parties comprised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Community Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and National People’s Party (NPEP).

The regional parties included AAP, AGP, AIADMK, AIFB, AIMIM, AIUDF, BJD, CPI(ML)(L), DMDK, DMK, GFP, JDS, JDU, JMM, KC-M, MNS, NDPP, NPF, PMK, RLD, SAD, SDF, Shivsena, SKM, TDP, TRS and YSR-Congress.