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Source
Indian Express
https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/trs-aap-jdu-regional-parties-donations-association-for-democratic-reforms-8573811/
Author
Express News Service
Date
City
New Delhi

Out of a total of Rs 189.801 crore in donations declared by 26 parties, the TRS declared Rs 40.90 crore, the AAP declared Rs 38.243 crore, the JD(U) declared Rs 33.257 crore, the Samajwadi Party declared Rs 29.795 crore and the YSR Congress declared Rs 20.01 crore.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which is now known as Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Janata Dal (United) accounted for nearly 60 per cent of donations declared by regional parties to the Election Commission of India in 2021-2022, as per a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Monday.

Political parties are required to declare all their donations over Rs 20,000 each to the ECI under Section 29C (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The ADR report found that out of 54 regional parties in 2021-2022, 33 had submitted their reports and 26 had declared donations, while the remaining declared nil contributions.

Out of a total of Rs 189.801 crore in donations declared by 26 parties, the TRS declared Rs 40.90 crore, the AAP declared Rs 38.243 crore, the JD(U) declared Rs 33.257 crore, the Samajwadi Party declared Rs 29.795 crore and the YSR Congress declared Rs 20.01 crore. The YSR Congress had the highest increase in declared donations from the previous year, with an increase of 8 lakh per cent. The AAP, which has recently been recognised as a national party, saw an increase from Rs 11.328 crore. The AIADMK, the Biju Janata Dal, and the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference were among those parties that did not declare any donations. The Shiv Sena, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Jan Shakti Party were among those parties whose reports were not available on the ECI website, the ADR said.

Out of the total donations, Rs 7.40 lakh were donated in cash in 21 donations comprising 0.039 per cent of total donations. “Maximum donations in cash were declared by IUML, which collected a total of Rs 5.55 lakh… Among all the states, donors from Tamil Nadu made the highest donations of Rs 5.55 lakh in cash…” the ADR report states.

Donations from Delhi accounted for Rs 118.178 crore out of the total donations, followed by Punjab (Rs 13.528 crore), Karnataka (Rs 9.896 crore), Bihar (Rs 9.887 crore), and Haryana (Rs 7.268 crore). The ADR report said Rs 1.828 crore of the AAP’s donations was received from addresses abroad.