The highest donation to the BJP was from Prudent Electoral Trust of ₹252.7 crore.

While Kolkata-based MKJ enterprises Ltd contributed ₹20.25 crore to the Congress party

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has cornered the lion's share of the donation from the public, a report by the Election Commission of India shows.

The saffron party's funding surged to ₹719 crore in fiscal year 2022-23, marking a 17.1% rise from FY 2021-22 when the party had received ₹614 crore of donations.

What BJP's victory in three Hindi heartlands mean for 2024 Lok Sabha polls

On the other hand, donations to Congress have dwindled to ₹79 crore in FY 2022-23 from ₹95.4 crore in the 2021-22 financial year.

Notably, the donation records mentioned in the Election Commission's report excludes amount below ₹20,000.

How INDIA bloc's power dynamics is likely to shift after Congress's loss

The highest donation to the BJP was from Prudent Electoral Trust of ₹252.7 crore, the ECI report showed.

In the case of donation to Congress, Kolkata-based MKJ enterprises Ltd contributed ₹20.25 crore to the party.

On the ECI list, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party received a donation of ₹37 crore in the last fiscal year.

This year, a report by the think tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)  claimed that BJP received more funds than all other national parties put together, including via electoral bonds.

Poll rout: Is this the end of Congress’ welfare politics?

The BJP declared donations worth ₹10,122.03 crore between 2016-17 and 2021-22 while donations to Congress stood at ₹1,547.43 crore in the same period.

The electoral bonds generated donations was over ₹9,188 crore between 2016-17 and 2021-22 for all political parties, the ADR report mentioned. Of this, the BJP received ₹5,272 crore and the Congress received ₹952 crore, while the rest went to other parties.

According to the ADR, national parties witnessed a significant surge in electoral bond donations, witnessing a 743% increase between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22.

In contrast, corporate donations to national parties increased by only 48% during the same period, it said.

Electoral bonds generated donations worth over ₹9,188 crore in last 6 years

The electoral bonds scheme was introduced in 2017 by way of a Finance Bill and was implemented in 2018.  Any individual or an entity can make donations to registered political parties while maintaining donor anonymity. The bonds are sold in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore. The electoral bonds can be purchased from authorised branches of the State Bank of India. Then political parties have to encash the donation within a stipulated time.