At Rs 706 Crore, BJP Got Maximum Corporate Donations: Report

BJP received the highest donations between 2012-13 and 2015-16 as per a report by ADR.

At Rs 705.81 crore, the BJP received the maximum amount of donations by corporate houses to national parties between 2012-13 and 2015-16, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The total amount of donations in the time period was Rs 956.77.

The corporate donations comprise 89 percent of the total contribution from known sources.

After the BJP, which has received donations from 2,987 corporate donors, it is the Indian National Congress (INC), which has received the second highest donations with Rs 198.16 crore from 167 corporate donors.

Also Read: The Big Corporate Takeover of Political Funding

BJP Received Highest Donations From All 14 Sectors

BJP received the highest donations from all 14 sectors including real estate (Rs 105.20 crore), mining, construction, exports/imports (Rs 83.56 crore), chemicals /pharmaceuticals (Rs 31.94 crore), among others.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) received Rs 50.73 crore, followed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (Rs 1.89 crore) and CPI (Rs 0.18 crore).

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was not considered for analysis in the report as the party has declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from any donor between 2012-13 and 2015-16.

ADR said:

Between 2012-13 and 2015-16, five national parties received a total of Rs 1,070.68 crore via voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 out of which 89 per cent of Rs 956.77 crore was from corporates /business houses.

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2,987

No of corporate houses that donated to BJP 

Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year to the Election Commission of India, every year.

Also Read: Nearly 70% of Political Funding Comes From Unknown Sources: Report

99 Percent Donations Without PAN Details Belong to BJP: Report

Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI (M) have the lowest share of corporate donations at 4 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

National parties received the maximum corporate donations in 2014-15, during which Lok Sabha elections were held, the report by the Delhi-based ADR said.

ADR said:

Despite not donating during 2012-13, Satya Electoral Trust was the top donor to three of the national parties, between 2012-13 and 2015-16. The Trust donated a total of 35 number of times in 3 years, amounting to Rs 260.87 crore.

Rs 384.04 crore 

Amount received by national parties which didn’t give PAN details

BJP declared receiving Rs 193.62 crore while INC was the recipient of Rs 57.25 crore of funds from the Trust.

The top donors to the Communist parties were 'Associations' or 'Unions'. CPI received a total of Rs 14.64 lakh from 15 different associations/unions while CPI (M) received a total of Rs 1.09 crore from seven different associations.

As per the report, a total of 1,933 donations through which national parties received Rs 384.04 crore do not have PAN details in the contribution form.

National parties have received Rs 355.08 crore from 1,546 donations which do not have address details in the contribution form, it added. The report alleged:

99 percent of such donations without PAN and address details worth Rs 159.59 crore belong to BJP.

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(The article has been edited for length)

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