BJP gets lion’s share of corporate donations

NEW DELHI:  Corporates and business houses donated Rs 876.10 crore to various national political parties in 2018-19 five national, with BJP getting the maximum donation of Rs 698.082 crore from 1,573 corporates. The  Congress came a distant second receiving a total contribution of Rs 122.5 crore from 122 corporate donors while the NCP received Rs 11.345 crore from 17 corporate donors.  

A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)  showed that national parties received the maximum corporate donation in the 2018-19 — the period which preceded the Lok Sabha elections — followed by Rs 573.18 crore in 2014-15, the year when the 16th Lok Sabha elections were held.

The report said corporate donations received in 2018-19 constituted 31% of the total such donations received between 2012-13 and 2018-19. In the same period, donations from corporates to national parties increased by 968%.

Progressive Electoral Trust was the top donor to three national parties —  BJP, Congress and All India Trinamool COngress — in 2018-19. The Trust donated three times in a single year to the three parties each, amounting to a total of Rs 455.15 crore. 

The BJP received Rs 356.535 crore while the Congress and the Trinamool received Rs 55.629 crore and Rs 42.986 crore, respectively, in single donations each from the Trust. During the same year, the share of corporate/business houses to the total donations of BJP and the Congress was 94% and 82%, respectively. Out of the total of donation by corporates to the five national parties, Rs 20.54 crore was from unsegregated category, which includes companies with no details available online or whose nature of work is unclear.