BJP received the highest corporate donations of Rs 720 Crore in 2019-20: ADR
Corporate and business houses donated Rs 921.95 crore to national parties in the 2019-20 fiscal year, with the BJP receiving the lion’s share of Rs 720.407 crore, according to a report. Corporate donations to national parties increased 109% between fiscal years 2017-18 and 2018-19, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO that works to achieve transparency in electoral politics.
The analysis was made on the basis of details provided by the parties to the Electoral Commission of India on donors who have donated more than Rs 20,000 in a financial year.
The five parties whose donations were analyzed include the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian National Congress (INC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist ( CPM). ).
According to the report, out of the five national parties, the BJP received the maximum donations of Rs 720,407 crore from 2025 corporate donors during the 2019-20 fiscal year, followed by the INC which received a total contribution of Rs 133.04 crore. from 154 donors, and the NCP with Rs 57,086 crore from 36 corporate donors.
The CPM did not report corporate donation revenue for 2019-20, it said. The report says that the Prudent Electoral Trust was the top donor to the BJP and Congress in 2019-20.
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The Trust donated 38 times in a single year to the two parties each, totaling Rs 247.75 crore.
“The BJP declared receiving Rs 216.75 crore and the Congress received Rs 31.00 crore from the Prudent Electoral Trust. BG Shirke Construction Technology SA. Ltd. was the top donor to NCP in 2019-20,” he said.
During the period 2012-13 to 2019-20, national parties received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 921.95 crore in 2019-20 (during which the 17th Lok Sabha elections were held), followed by Rs 881 Rs.26 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 573.18 crore in 2014-15 (during which the 16th Lok Sabha elections were held), according to the report.
Corporate donations received in 2019-20 constituted 24.62% of total corporate donations made between 2012-13 and 2019-20. Between 2012-13 and 2019-20, donations from corporate and commercial houses to national parties increased by 1,024 percent, the report noted.
Contributions from corporate/trading houses have been split into 15 sectors/categories by ADR and are not part of the parties’ submission to ECI.
Sectors include trusts and company groups, manufacturing, energy and oil, mining, construction, exports/imports, and real estate, among others.
“Out of the total Rs 921.95 crore donated by corporate/business houses to the five national parties in FY 2019-20, Rs 22,312 crore was received from the non-segregated category, which includes companies with no details available online. or whose nature of work is unclear,” the report said.
During 2019-20, electoral trusts were the largest donors to national parties, contributing a total amount of Rs 397.82 crore (around 43%).
The manufacturing sector was the second highest overall contributor in 2019-20, contributing a total amount of Rs 146,388 crore, according to the report.
During 2019-20, the BJP, Congress, AITC and NCP received the highest contributions from election trusts. The BJP received the highest amount of Rs 323.32 crore, followed by INC (Rs 71.00 crore), AITC (Rs 2.00 crore) and NCP (Rs 1.50 crore). .