Analysis of status of submission of annual reports of Registered Unrecognised Political Parties during FY 2022-23
Link to data available on MyNeta website: https://myneta.info/party/unrecognized_parties.php
This report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analyses the status of submission of annual audit reports and contribution reports of registered unrecognised parties for FY 2022-23. The report looks at the status of submission of the annual reports of registered unrecognised parties and the income, expenditure and donations declared by these political parties during the FY 2022-23. Previously also ADR released several reports on the political finance disclosures by the RUPPs, which can be accessed here
Key Findings
This report analyses the status of submission of annual reports of a total of 739 (26.74% of the total RUPPs) registered unrecognised parties across 22 states in India, whose either audit or contribution reports were available on the respective state CEOs websites for the FY 2022-23.
The analysis shows that both annual audit and contribution reports of a significant 73.26% or 2025 of the total RUPPs are not availablein the public domain for FY 2022-23.
States with zero reporting: Punjab (73 RUPPs), Uttarakhand (40 RUPPs) and Goa (12) are among the top three states where both audit and contributions reports of none of the RUPPs are available on the official websites.
The top compliant states are Gujarat (37.89%), Bihar (36.41%), Delhi (30%), Uttar Pradesh (23.25%) and Tamil Nadu (21.74%) where either statement is available for the aforementioned percentages of total RUPPs in the state.
Gujarat (30.53%), Delhi (21.67%) and Bihar (18.48%) demonstrate relatively higher levels of compliance compared to the national average in terms of the availability of both reports of RUPPs in the public domain.
Out of the top 10, 5 parties (50%) are from Gujarat, indicating a concentration of unrecognized parties with high declared incomes in this state.
Gujarat parties collectively reported Rs 1158.115 cr in total income—over 70% of the top 10 parties’ income. The highest income was declared by Bharatiya National Janta Dal, Rs 576.458 cr.
Many of the top earners were formed after 2015, reflecting a trend of newer parties rapidly mobilizing funds. These include Satyawadi Rakshak Party (2022), Jan Man Party (2021), Jan Sewak Kranti Party (2021) and New India United Party (2018).
Bharatiya National Janata Dal declared the highest total income of Rs 957.4454 cr (31.76% of total) between the FY 2019-20 to 2023-24.
Satyawadi Rakshak Party declared the second highest income of Rs 416.2337 cr, with sharp growth in FY 2022-23 (Rs 85.6779) and a massive Rs 330.5558 cr in FY 2023-24.
In most cases, the income and donations of only the top 10 RUPPs match that of the state parties. The total donations above Rs 20,000 declared by top 10 RUPPs exceeded that of the National and state parties for FY 2022-23.
National parties reported only 33% donations from large donors (donations above Rs 20,000), while the top 10 unrecognized parties reported a massive 93% from large donors. Regional parties reported the least large-donor concentration (14%).
Observations
- A significant 73.26% of unrecognised political parties did not have either report available online, pointing to a major transparency gap in financial reporting by registered unrecognised political parties.
- Low compliance overall: Only 18.13% of parties submitted both mandatory reports.
- Lack of uniformity: Reporting rates vary dramatically across states, indicating potential differences in enforcement, capacity, or willingness to comply. While reporting formats for audit and donations reports are available but several parties fail to adhere to it.
- Unrecognized parties’ disclosures show that parties received large numbers of donations, heavy reliance on large donors and a near-total expenditure.
- Between FY 2019-20 and FY 2023-24, there’s a dramatic increase in declared income of RUPPs starting from FY 2021-22 (Rs 490.2151 cr), which then rose by 223% in FY 2022-23 (Rs 1581.7517 cr).
- A total of 38 of the 739 RUPPs analysed in this report declared a total income exceeding Rs 1 crore in the FY 2022-23.
- For FY 2022-23, it has been observed that the CEO websites of the following states and union territories — Punjab, Chandigarh, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli — do not have any details of the audit reports, donation reports, and election expenditure reports of unrecognized political parties available on their respective websites.
- The reports and statements of registered unrecognised parties are not available on the CEO websites of Meghalaya & Puducherry (last the four years) and Goa (for the last five years) at the time of preparing this report.