HIGHEST CORPORATE DONATIONS IN 2019-20 WENT TO BJP: ADR REPORT

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remained the biggest recipient of corporate donations in FY2019-20, when there was a Lok Sabha election, that also saw the highest corporate funding to national parties, a total of ₹921.95 crore.

In 2014-15, the previous Lok Sabha poll year,the corresponding number was ₹573.18 crore.

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its report published on Monday, added that corporate funds accounted for 91% of the total contribution of political parties in 2019-20. The study covered BJP, Congress, CPIM, NCP and the TMC.

“The BJP received the maximum donations of ₹720.407 crore from 2,025 corporate donors followed by INC (Congress) which received a total contribution of ₹133.04 crore from 154 corporate donors, and NCP with ₹57.086 crore from 36 corporate donors,” said the report.

Two other national parties, Bahujan Samaj Party and Communist Party of India were not part of the ADR review after BSP announced it didn’t receive any contributions above ₹20,000 in FY19-20 and CPI didn’t declare any income from corporates.

According to India’s election laws, details of all donations above ₹20,000 must be declared in the annual report to the Election Commission.

Among the donors, electoral trusts emerged as the biggest spenders followed by companies in the manufacturing sector. While electoral trusts contributed to 43% of all corporate donations in 2019-20, manufacturing industries (15.87%), and mining/ construction/export and import firms gave 13% of the donations.

According to the report, “Prudent Electoral Trust was the top donor to two of the National parties namely BJP and INC in FY 2019-20”.

It contributed ₹216.75 crore to the BJP and ₹31 crore to the Congress.

NCP’s top donor was B.G. Shirke Construction Technology Pvt. Ltd, which gave it ₹25 crore. Among other large donors, ITC contributed ₹55 crore to the BJP and ₹13.6 crore to Congress.