Bhubaneswar: The BJD received donations of Rs 13.04 crore in the 2017-18 fiscal — the highest among 48 regional parties, an analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms has revealed. The JD-U comes a close second with donations amounting to Rs 11.19 crore.
In the 2016-17 fiscal, BJD had not declared the donations it received. It is mandatory for political parties to disclose donations above Rs 20,000, according to Section 29C (1) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951.
The party is ahead of several national parties, with the exception of BJP and Congress, as far as attracting donations is concerned. While BJP has received a whopping Rs 437 crore in the 2017018 fiscal, Congress has received Rs 26 crore. The BJD thus trumps national parties like NCP (Rs 2.87 crore), CPI (Rs 1.46 crore) and CPM (Rs 2.75 crore) in donations received.
The coordinator of Odisha Election Watch, Ranjan Mohanty, said BJD’s long rule — the party has been in power since 2000 — accounted for the high amount of money it has received. “Generally, donations are given to the ruling dispensation. This has been the trend and BJP exemplifies it best. Secondly, BJD has been in power for the past 19 years in the state,” said Mohanty.
No one from the party was available for comment on the matter.

The ADR analysis said the amount of donations declared by the regional parties, including both above and below Rs 20,000, was Rs 54.81 crore from 2,824 sources. It said three regional parties had received 59.44 per cent of the total donations.
Out of the Rs 54.81 crore declared by the regional parties, Rs 77.49 lakh was given in cash from 434 sources. The Naga People’s Front (NPF) received the highest cash donation of Rs 65.26 lakh in the 2017-2018 fiscal.