Summary: In this poll season, who is paying for the party? There is a crying need for transparency in political funding, but do parties actually want that? The Association for Democratic Reforms has come up with a report that says that more than 50% funds of political parties come from unknown sources. What are these sources? The prominent among them are voluntary donations up to Rs 20,000 and donations made via electoral bonds. In both these cases, the donor information is either kept secret or is not required to be revealed. There is a batch of petitions in the Supreme Court on political funding, which the court today posted for hearing on April 2. One of the petitions by ADR seeks stay on Electoral Bonds Scheme.
