The donations that recognised national parties received during the 2020-21 financial year decreased by over Rs 420 crore, a sharp fall of 41.49 per cent from the previous fiscal, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Thursday.The first wave of Covid started around the end of March 2020, just before the start of the financial year, triggering lockdowns across the country.

Donations to the BJP decreased from Rs 785.77 crore during FY 2019-20 to Rs 477.54 crore during FY 2020-21 — a fall of 39.23 per cent. The party's donations had increased by 5.88 per cent during FY 2019-20 in comparison to FY 2018-19, the poll reform advocacy group said in a statement.

The donations received by the Congress plunged from Rs 139.016 crore during FY 2019-20 to Rs 74.524 crore during FY 2020-21, a reduction of 46.39 per cent. Its donations had decreased by 6.44 per cent between FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20, the statement said.

A total of over Rs 246 crore was donated to the national parties from Delhi, followed by Rs 71.68 crore from Maharashtra and over Rs 47 crore from Gujarat.

Donations totalling Rs 37.912 crore (6.39 per cent of the aggregate received by the national parties in FY 2020-21) could not be attributed to any state or union territory due to incomplete or undeclared information provided by the parties, it said.

The BJP, BSP, Congress, CPI, CPI-M, TMC, NCP and National People's Party are the eight recognised national parties. The corporate and the business sector made 1,398 donations to the national parties amounting to Rs 480.655 crore, over 80 per cent of the total donations, while 2,258 individual donors contributed Rs 111.65 crore or 18.804 per cent of the total to these parties during FY 2020-21.