BJP gets lion’s share of donations

NEWDELHI: The BJP received the lion’s share — ₹705.81 crore — of ₹956.77 crore that corporate houses donated to five national parties between 2012-13 and 2015-16, a report by a Delhi-based non-profit pushing for poll reforms said on Thursday.

The party, which swept to power in 2014, got money from 2,987 corporate donors followed by the Congress that received ₹198.16 crore from 167 business houses, the Association for Democratic Reforms( A DR) said.

The Nationalist Congress Party received ₹50.73 cr ore, Communist Party of India( Marxist) ₹1.89 crore and CPI ₹18 lakh, said the report based on submissions made by political parties to the election commission.

The bulk of BJP’s funds came from trusts and business houses dealing in real estate, mining, manufacturing, oil and power, construction, exports/imports among others.

The division of corporate donors along 14 sectors was done by ADR and didn’t form a part of the submission made to the poll panel. There is a demand to make poll funding transparent to cleanse politics of money power. Business houses have been taking the electoral trusts route to make donations that allow companies to give money without appearing to favour one party over the other.