The Internal Revenue Service launched raids in several states on Wednesday as part of a tax evasion investigation targeting Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPP) and their allegedly dubious funding, official sources said.
The searches will be carried out in Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and some other states, they said.
The tax department has launched coordinated action against the RUPPs, their affiliates, operators and others, the sources said.
The surprise action is understood to have been taken by the department on advice from the Electoral Commission (EC), which recently removed 87 units from its RUPP list after finding they did not exist on physical inspection.
The electoral body had announced it would take action against more than 2,100 registered, unrecognized political parties for violating rules and electoral laws, including those related to the filing of monetary contributions, and for failing to update their addresses and the names of officials.
It had said some of those parties were engaging in serious financial impropriety.
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