‘Donations More Than the National Parties’: BBC Investigation Reveals Untracked Fundings to India's Unrecognized Political Parties

SERIOUS CONCERNS have taken shape around India’s vibrant Electoral Democracy, after a recently conducted investigation by the BBC News Hindi revealed a peculiar financial trend among a certain category of political parties in India. The report discovered how the donations made to six political outfits or parties based in Gujarat, were more than the national parties in India, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the financial year 2023-2024. These six parties are categorized as the Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUUP) under the Election Commission of India (ECI).

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According to the data from the Election Commission and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)—an electoral watchdog based in India—these six parties received Rs 1,700 crore in donations during the financial year 2023-2024, which surpassed five recognized national parties during that time. The Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the National People’s Party received donations of Rs 1,480 crore, lagging behind a lumpsump amount of Rs 280 crore to the six RUUP’s based in Gujarat.

RUUP’s and their Massive Financial Transactions

A Registered Unrecognized Political Party (RUUP) is a political organization formally registered with the ECI, but does not qualify for the status of a recognized state or national party. These parties are eligible to contest elections, but do not receive reserved symbols or free airtime during election campaigns. However, they enjoy the similar legal status and rights like other political parties, such as fielding candidates, conducting political outreach, accessing public spaces for campaigning, among others.

The six RUUPs in question are registered in Gujarat, namely, Aam Janmat Party, Bharatiya National Janata Dal, Garib Kalyan Party, New India United Party, New India Party, Satyawadi Rakshak Party and the Swatantra Abhivyakti Party. According to the official data from the Election Commission of India and the ADR, these parties received Rs 1,700 crore in donations during the 2023-2024 financial year (up to the 2024 lok sabha elections). In the investigative report prepared by BBC News Hindi, journalist Shubhangi Mishra details on the finances of the Aam Janmat Party, which had reportedly received Rs 620 crore in donations during this period—more than double of the Congress party, which received Rs 281 crore. 

What is peculiar here, is to analyze the relative electoral performance and participation of these outfits and their financial resources. The six RUUPs in Gujarat fielded 15 candidates in the 2024 general elections, against the 893 candidates of the five national parties, who reportedly had lesser donations than these RUUPs. While very little is known about the on-ground political activities of the Aam Janmat Party, its official website states Gaurav Mishra as its National President, along with five other official portfolios. It also notes that the party is involved across the country, notably in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Keralam, Goa and West Bengal.

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The BBC report also noted something important, of the six RUUPs, four were based in the Naroda area in Ahmedabad. With the news of such potential irregularities coming in, people have begun to raise their concerns on the health of India’s electoral democracy. Speaking to Dr Munish Kumar Raizada—political activist who is advocating for electoral reforms—on this issue, we got to know how such lacunas in monitoring the electoral system have been raised time and again by civil society workers, transparency activists, and other political workers.

In describing this trail of financial and monetary exchanges between different stakeholders, Dr Munish referred to the ‘Hawala system’ which is widely practiced in the country, and such practices are diminishing the integrity of India’s electoral system. “For instance, let us say you approached me with the proposal to donate Rs 1 crore to my party fund, of which I would give you Rs 97 Lakh. What happens here is that you can evade the tax commitments, as well as channelize your black money. Essentially, Indian Politics is what I call ‘Black Money Politics.’

Financial Records of the RUUPs and Indian Politics

This is not the first time that such a report on electoral integrity and transparency has become a major point of discussion. There were a series of reports, statements by political parties, news reports on the potential irregularities associated with the such unrecognized parties. A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in July 2025, was the major icebreaker. This was followed by a report by Dainik Bhaskar on ten ‘anonymous parties’ receiving Rs 4300 crore as funds between 2019-20 and 2023-24, despite rarely contesting polls. Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi had also urged the Election Commission to respond to this report, to which Gyanesh Kumar responded sharply by asking Mr Gandhi to either file an affidavit or apologize to the country.  

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) published its study on the Registered Unrecognized Political Parties in India (RUUP) in July 18, 2025, and referring to this data reveals a lot on where this current RUUP situation stands. The study found that there has been a steep rise in the declared income of the RUUP clocking a 223% rise in their declared income during FY 2022-23. Furthermore, it also noted that over 73 % of these parties did not publish their financial records. 

The major findings by the ADR study raises many questions. Despite having minimal electoral impact, these parties are custodians of huge revenue. However, of the total 2,764 parties registered then, only 739 submitted their financial records for the given period. 

State-wise findings help us to present the landscape of such a practice with more clarity. The numbers of RUUP who withheld or kept their financial data undisclosed accounted for 168 in Delhi, 180 in Tamil Nadu.

The BBC News Hindi’s investigation also opened the floodgates to other concerns, especially their inability to communicate and contact with the designated party heads, projecting a lack of effective transparency measures. Of these RUUPs, Garib Kalyan Party had received a disclosed donation of about Rs 138 crore in 2023-24. The party was registered in 2022, and received Rs 138 crore donations within just one year, in 2024.

Another RUUP, New India United Party, had received donations of Rs 200 crore in the 2023-24 financial year. The other two parties, i.e. , Satyawadi Rakshak Party and the Swatantra Abhivyakti Party, received donations of around Rs 330 crore and Rs 219 crore.

Of these, the Satyawavi Rakshak Party in its income and expenditure statement noted the utilization of Rs 8 crore for its electoral expenditure, and a donation of RS 316 crore for public welfare purposes. However, the Satyavadi Rakshak Party had fielded only a single candidate in the election. 

This gap between participation, performance and the amount of funds being collected, brings about serious questions on the role of these RUUPs in India, and also portrays the credible lacunas in the rules governing the country’s electoral system. 

Greater Checks and Stronger Regulations

The ADR study also witnessed an unusual phenomenon in the state of Gujarat. Here, five RUUPs reported a total income of Rs 2,316 crore between 2019 and 2024, while receiving a mere 22,000 votes during the same period. This is further built upon by the recently conducted BBC study, where they found that the donations made to six such RUUP parties in Gujarat was more than the national parties, except the Bharatiya Janata Party.

These findings point toward a potential utilization of the electoral system as a shadow financial institution—which despite all the evidence gathered could seldom garner greater checks unless the existing legal provisions are being tutored to cater to those. The recent revelation by BBC and the continuing efforts by transparency activists, and other civil society workers, clearly point towards the need for bringing about stringent laws, and greater checks and balances to our electoral system. Echoing a similar thought, Dr Munish Raizada said, “We are failing to catch it. When the person donating the money is ready, alongside the person receiving the money in the party fund, how can we catch them. We can’t catch it.”

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