The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has received five times more funds via donations than the Indian National Congress in FY19.

According to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), BJP received Rs 742.1 crore in donations as opposed to Rs 148.5 crore received by the Congress.

However, these donations are only those with amounts more than Rs 20,000. Section 29C of the Representation of People Act, 1951, mandates political parties to submit contribution details in excess of Rs 20,000 received from any person or company annually.

BJP’s declared donations more than three times the aggregate declared by Congress, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) during the same period.

These parties declared total donations (above Rs 20,000) of Rs 951.6 crore in FY19 from 5,520 donors.

Trinamool Congress and NCP received donations of Rs 44.2 crore and Rs 12 crore during FY19, respectively. The two Left parties — CPI and CPI(M) — said they had received donations worth Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3 crore, respectively.

Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared not having received any donations above Rs 20,000 during the said period.

The above mentioned political parties and are all categorised as ‘national parties’.

Year-on-year growth

According to ADR’s analysis, total donations received by national parties during FY19 increased by Rs 481.7 crore year-on-year.

Donations to BJP increased around 70 percent YoYto Rs 742.1 crore in FY19. This is significant as BJP saw the amount of donations dip 18 percent in the preceding fiscal.

Donations received by Congress rose roughly 458 percent YoY to Rs 148.5 crore during FY19. Between FY17 and FY18, donations to the Grand Old Party had fallen by 36 percent.

TMC, NCP, CPI and CPI(M) also declared an increase in donations in FY19 as compared to FY18.

Where are these donations coming from?

Based on donor addresses provided by parties, ADR said a total of Rs 548.2 crore came from Maharashtra. This was followed by Rs 141.4 crore from Delhi and Rs 55.3 crore from Gujarat.

The report further suggests that donations worth Rs 65.8 crore (about 6.9 percent of the total donations received) could not be attributed to any state or Union Territory due to incomplete information provided by political parties.

Corporate donations: As many as 1,776 donations to these parties were made by corporates or businesses. These donations amounted to Rs 876.1 crore. That is roughly 92 percent of the total donations received by these parties in FY19.

There were 3,509 individual donors who donated Rs 71.4 crore (7.5 percent of total donations) to these parties.

Top donors for BJP, Congress: The report suggests that 1,575 donations from corporates or businesses were made to the BJP. These donations were worth Rs 698 crore. About 2,741 individual donors donated Rs 41.7 crore to the party.

Congress received a total of Rs 122.5 crore from 122 corporate donors and Rs 25.3 crore from 482 individuals.

It was reported earlier that the ruling BJP had raised Rs 1,450.8 crore in donations through electoral bonds in FY19. Congress had raised Rs 383.2 crore through electoral bonds.