New Delhi: Six little-known political parties received nearly ₹1,700 crore in donations during 2023-24, yet together fielded only 15 candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, according to a BBC News Hindi investigation that has raised questions over the flow of money to registered unrecognised political parties.
The parties examined were Aam Janmat Party, Bharatiya National Janata Dal, Garib Kalyan Party, New India United Party, Satyawadi Rakshak Party and Swatantrata Abhivyakti Party. BBC said its team spent nearly two months examining the parties, which fall under the category of Registered Unrecognised Political Parties, or RUPPs.
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The investigation found a sharp contrast between the volume of donations reported by the parties and their limited electoral presence. The six received around ₹1,700 crore during the financial year preceding the 2024 general election, more than the combined donations received by five national parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Six Parties Received More Than Five National Parties Combined
Election Commission and Association for Democratic Reforms data cited in the investigation showed that the six parties collectively received approximately ₹1,700 crore in 2023-24.
By comparison, five parties recognised as national parties at the time, the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and National People’s Party, together received around ₹1,480 crore.
The difference becomes more striking when their electoral activity is considered. The five national parties fielded 893 candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, while the six parties examined by BBC fielded only 15 candidates between them. Four of the six were based in the Naroda area of Ahmedabad.
Among them, Satyawadi Rakshak Party reported income of about ₹330.56 crore in 2023-24, according to ADR’s analysis of financial statements. New India United Party reported about ₹200.69 crore, while Bharatiya National Janata Dal reported approximately ₹191.62 crore during the same year.
ADR’s longer-term analysis also shows that the sums were not isolated to a single year. Bharatiya National Janata Dal declared total income of about ₹957.45 crore between 2019-20 and 2023-24, while New India United Party reported more than ₹608 crore across the years for which data was available. Satyawadi Rakshak Party reported more than ₹416 crore over the period covered by the ADR analysis.
Aam Janmat Party Received ₹620 Crore
Aam Janmat Party stood out in the BBC investigation after reporting about ₹620 crore in donations during 2023-24. The amount was more than twice the approximately ₹281 crore received by the Congress in the same financial year, according to the data cited by BBC.
Despite the scale of the funding, Aam Janmat Party had a limited presence in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The party fielded only one candidate in Gujarat, according to election records.
BBC’s field investigation also examined the physical presence and functioning of the parties. Its reporters visited addresses associated with the organisations while trying to establish how parties receiving hundreds of crores in donations operated on the ground. The BBC report said several of the organisations had little visible electoral presence despite the size of their financial receipts.
The financial rise of Aam Janmat Party had already attracted attention in earlier data. ADR found that the party’s reported income increased from just ₹8,000 in 2020-21 to around ₹220.37 crore in 2022-23.
ADR has separately highlighted broader transparency problems among RUPPs. Its analysis found that only 18.13 per cent of the registered unrecognised parties examined had both mandatory financial reports available, while 73.26 per cent did not have either report available online.
The organisation also found that large donations played an unusually important role among the highest-earning RUPPs. In 2022-23, around 93.56 per cent of donations received by the top 10 unrecognised parties examined by ADR came from contributions exceeding ₹20,000.
Large Donations and Limited Politics Raise Questions
The latest investigation adds to earlier scrutiny of political funding involving little-known parties in Gujarat. In 2025, an investigation reported that 10 such parties had received around ₹4,300 crore between 2019-20 and 2023-24 despite rarely contesting elections.
Across the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2022 Gujarat Assembly election, those 10 parties fielded only 43 candidates, who together secured 54,069 votes. Five of the six parties examined in the latest BBC investigation were also among the parties identified in that earlier report.
Questions have also emerged over the completeness of political funding disclosures. Earlier research highlighted by ADR found that Aam Janmat Party reported about ₹220 crore in donations in 2022-23, but donor details were available for only a fraction of that amount in its contribution report. New India United Party and other RUPPs were also found to have gaps in some financial disclosures examined by researchers.
Experts cited by BBC said the unusual combination of high-value donations and limited political activity warranted closer scrutiny, including examination of whether some RUPPs could potentially be used for tax evasion, money laundering, hawala transactions or other financial irregularities.
However, the financial patterns and limited electoral activity do not by themselves establish that the six parties committed any offence. The BBC investigation raised questions about their funding and functioning but did not establish criminal wrongdoing against the organisations or their office-bearers.
Registered unrecognised political parties are legitimate political organisations registered with the Election Commission but which have not met the electoral criteria required to be recognised as national or state parties. The latest findings have nevertheless renewed scrutiny of whether existing disclosure and oversight mechanisms are adequate when relatively obscure political organisations receive donations running into hundreds of crores.
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About the author — Suvedita Nath is a science student with a growing interest in cybercrime and digital safety. She writes on online activity, cyber threats, and technology-driven risks. Her work focuses on clarity, accuracy, and public awareness.
