New Delhi: Regional parties in the South including JD(S) have obtained Rs. 447.77 crore from undisclosed sources in 2019-2020, in which 55.50 percent of their total income.

Out of Rs.445.77 crore, 95.62 percent (Rs.426.23 crore) came from electoral bonds and regional parties have obtained Rs. 4.97 crore from voluntary contributions.

Income tax returns and donation details of parties filed with the Elections Commission reveals that the sources are largely unknown, stated in the report. Political parties are not required to disclose the names of people or organizations who donate funds for elections for less than Rs. 20.000. Thus the source of major of the funds cannot be traced.

Regional parties from south – TRS, TDP, YSR Congress party, DMK and JD(S)- top the list of regional parties with the highest income from unknown sources. Navin Patnayak’s BJD is also included in the list. Regional parties those obtained donations from unknown sources are

TRS (Rs 89.158 crore), TDP (Rs 81.694 crore), YSR Congress Party (Rs 74.75 crore), BJD (Rs 50.586 crore), and DMK (Rs 45.50 crore).

According to the Election Commission, donations received by the regional parties from known donors increased to Rs. 184.623 crore, which is 22.98% of their total income. In the financial year 2018-19, 23

regional parties that filed their annual audit and contribution reports, the ADR had stated that their total income was Rs 885.956 crore, of which Rs 481.276 crore (Rs. 54.32%) came from “unknown Source”.

BJP has spent Rs. 253 crore to the Assembly elections of Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala in 2021. In which it has spent Rs. 151.18 crore for West Bengal alone. Ruling TMC has spent Rs. 154.28 crore on West Bengal elections.

In Tamil Nadu, where the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power by defeating its arch-rival AIADMK. In this election, BJP obtained 2.6 per cent votes, spent Rs 22.97 crore for the campaign, the party has entered an alliance with AIADMK.

However seven National parties have received Rs 3,749.37 crore in the 2018-’19 financial year with 67% of it coming from “unknown sources” that cannot be traced, the Association for Democratic Reforms said on Monday.

Out of the total amount of funding, the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party accounted for Rs 1,612.04 crore – 64% of the total income of national parties – from untraceable sources. “This income of BJP forms more than 1.5 times more the aggregate of income from unknown sources declared by the other 5 National Parties (Rs 900.94 cr),” the report said.