BJP received three times more donations than other parties in 7 years: ADR report

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• Jul 12, 2023 | Dhupali Das

More than half of all donations received by political parties between 2016–17 and 2021–22 were through Electoral Bonds, and the BJP...

Digital Desk: More than half of all donations received by political parties between 2016–17 and 2021–22 were through Electoral Bonds, and the BJP received more funding than all other national parties together, according to a report by the think tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

According to the ADR, the seven national parties and 24 regional parties in India received donations totaling around 16,437 crore between 2016–17 and 2021-22. Of this, Rs 9,188.35 crore, or almost 56%, was raised through electoral bonds.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared donations of Rs 10,122.03 crore between 2016-17 and 2021-22, followed by the Congress (Rs 1,547.43 crore) and the Trinamool Congress (Rs 823.30 crore), the report said.

The total donations declared by the BJP are more than three times the total donations declared by all other national parties, according to the report.

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Donations of Rs 4,614.53 crore, or almost 28% of the total, were received from the corporate sector, with another Rs 2,634.74 crore (16.03%) coming from other sources.

Around Rs 13,190.68 crores or more than 80% of the donations, were received by the national parties, and Rs 3,246.95 crore, or 19.75%, by the regional parties, according to the ADR.

Between 2017–18 and 2021–22, donations from electoral bonds climbed by 743 percent for national parties, while corporate donations increased by 48 percent.

The most donations were collected in 2019-20, the year of general elections (Rs 4,863.50 crore), followed by  Rs 4,041.48 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 3,826.56 crore in FY 2021-22.

The BJP received three times as many donations as all other national parties combined, through Electoral Bonds accounting for more than 52% of the total. Corporate donations accounted for around 32% of total donations to the BJP.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) both got 100% donations from "other" sources, which are donations less than 20,000 for which political parties are not required to disclose the donor's details.

Among the regional parties, more than 89.81 percent of the BJD's total donations came from Electoral Bonds worth Rs 622 crore, the DMK announced the second highest donations from bonds of 431.50 crore, followed by the TRS, which declared Rs 383.65 crore, and YSR-C, which declared 330.44 crore.

The direct corporate donations revealed by the seven national parties are more than five times the corporate donations declared by 31 regional parties during the six-year period.

Over a six-year period, direct corporate donations declared by regional parties climbed by around 152%.