Electoral bonds make up 52% of donations to BJP, 61% for Congress

Source:

Money Control

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/politics/electoral-bonds-make-up-52-of-donations-to-bjp-61-for-congress-10938321.html

Author:

SOHIL SEHRAN

Date:

11.07.2023

City:

The Congress party received the second highest amount from bonds, wit Rs 952.2955 crore (61.54 percent) of its total donations coming from them.

Electoral bonds contributed more than 52 percent of the donations received by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), amounting to Rs 5,271.9751 crore, in the past six years, while all other national parties combined garnered Rs 1,783.9331 crore.

The Congress party received the second highest amount from bonds at Rs 952.2955 crore which is 61.54 percent of the total donations. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) received Rs 767.8876 crore, or 93.27 percent of its donations from electoral bonds.

According to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the total donations received by the 31 recognised political parties during the six-year period from 2016-17 to 2021-22 stood at Rs 16,437.635 crore.

Out of this, Rs 9,188.35991 crore (55.90 percent) came from electoral bonds, followed by Rs 4,614.53 crore (28.07 percent) from the corporate sector, and Rs 2,634.74509 crore (16.03 percent) came from other sources. The ADR analysis showed that electoral bonds remained the most preferred method of donating to national and regional political parties.

For national parties, donations from electoral bonds increased by 743 percent between 2017-18 and 2021-22, while corporate donations increased by only 48 percent.

The BJP declared corporate donations at least three to four times more than all other national parties combined. Delhi contributed the highest amount of corporate donations among the 31 recognised political parties, totalling Rs 1,843.697 crore, followed by Maharashtra with Rs 1,418.130 crore, and Gujarat with Rs 213.540 crore.

In 2017-18, the BJP's corporate donations were more than 18 times that of all other national parties combined. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) consistently declared no corporate donations in the past six years, while the Communist Party of India received zero corporate donations from 2018-19 to 2021-22.

During the six-year period, direct corporate donations declared by 24 regional parties also increased by 152.029 percent.