In FY 25, Jan Suraaj received Rs 101cr, spent only 9cr: ADR

File photo: Jan Suraaj Chief and MLA Prashant Kishor, along with party candidates

NEW DELHI: An analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that Jan Suraaj, which contested 238 seats in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections but won none, had declared an income of Rs 101.32 crore, including donations of Rs 99.40 crore, during 2024-25.Its expenditure stood at Rs 9.2 crore, it said.Since then, the party has won a seat in the assembly, with party founder Prashant Kishor winning a bypoll held in July. The party has also bagged one seat in the Bihar Legislative Council.The top 10 donors across the top 10 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) contributed an aggregate of Rs 120 crore through 445 transactions. Jan Suraaj Party dominated the funding from the top 10 donors, declaring Rs 97.72 crore from 104 donations.

This made up 80% of top 10 donor contributions across all 10 parties. Vedhas Ventures contributed Rs 85 crore to Jan Suraaj through 85 transactions, while Kishor donated Rs 10 crore through 10 transactions.

The other nine parties combined received only Rs 23.26 crore from their top 10 donors.

The ADR analysis shows that both annual audit and contribution reports for FY2024-25 of a significant 65% or 1,330 of the total RUPPs are not available in the public domain.

The top 15 RUPPs declared around Rs 1,064 crore in high-value donations (<Rs 20,000) and Rs 973.93 crore in total income, yet won zero seats in all elections they contested.A comparison of the disclosures shows that national parties commanded a vast majority of financial resources, generating around Rs 7,960 crore in total income, which is over 6.6 times that of 36 regional parties (Rs 1,192.944 crore) and 8.1 times that of the top 15 unrecognised parties (Rs 973.93 crore).