New Delhi: The declared incomes of registered unrecognised political parties witnessed a 223 per cent spike in 2022-23 and more than 73 per cent of these parties failed to publicly disclose their financial records, according to poll rights body the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Its report analysed the status of submission of annual reports of a total of 739 (26.74 per cent) registered unrecognised parties across 22 states in India, whose either audit or contribution reports were available on the websites of respective state CEOs for the 2022-23 financial year.
The analysis showed that both annual audit and contribution reports of a significant 73.26 per cent or 2025 of the total registered
unrecognised parties are not available in the public domain for FY 2022-23.
The maximum number of registered unrecognised parties, whose statements are available are in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Delhi and Bihar, given that these
states have the highest number of registered unrecognised political parties.
States with zero reporting included Punjab (73 registered unrecognised parties), Uttarakhand (40) and Goa (12) are among the top three states where both audit and contributions reports of none of the registered unrecognised parties are available on the official websites.
Among the 739 registered unrecognised parties analysed in this report, both audit and contribution reports are available for 501 parties across 20 states. This is a mere 18.13 per cent of the total number of registered unrecognised parties.
The top compliant states are Gujarat (37.89 per cent), Bihar (36.41 per cent), Delhi (30 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (23.25 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (21.74 per cent) where either statement is available for the aforementioned percentages of total registered unrecognised parties in the state.
Gujarat (30.53 per cent), Delhi (21.67 per cent) and Bihar (18.48 per cent) demonstrate relatively higher levels of compliance compared
to the national average in terms of the availability of both reports of registered unrecognised parties in the public domain.
Out of the top 10, five parties (50 per cent) are from Gujarat, indicating a concentration of unrecognized parties with high declared incomes in this state.
Gujarat parties collectively reported Rs 1158.115 crore in total income - over 70 per cent of the top 10 parties’ income. The highest income was declared by Bharatiya National Janta Dal, Rs 576.458 crore.
Donations above Rs 20,000 account for a large share of total donations - e.g. New India United Party shows 100 per cent of donations as large donations (Rs 407.45 crore).