BJP got 93% of donations over Rs 20,000 in 2017-18

The BJP pocketed 93% of the donations above Rs 20,000 given to seven national parties in 2017-18 with corporates and individuals preferring the ruling party over the Opposition parties.

The last fiscal saw the BJP getting Rs 437.04 crore out of Rs 469.89 crore of high-value donations garnered by national parties, which also includes the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the NCP, the BSP, the CPM and the CPI.

An analysis by the Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) showed that such donations to the BJP were "more than 12 times the aggregate of other national parties together".

As per the Representation of People Act, 1951, political parties have to provide details of those who donate more than Rs 20,000 to the Election Commission annually.

The report said that the BJP collected the amount from 2,977 donations in 2017-18 while the Congress declared that it received Rs 26.65 crore through 777 donations.

The CPM garnered Rs 2.75 crore from 196 donations, while the NCP collected Rs 2.08 crore through 42 donations.

The CPI got Rs Rs 1.14 crore from 176 donations while the Trinamool Congress got Rs 20 lakh from 33 donations.

The BSP declared that it did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000, as it has been declaring for the past 12 years.

Of the total 4,201 donations made, 1,367 donations were from the corporate sector, which donated Rs 422.04 crore (89.82% of total donations). The rest Rs 47.12 crore (10.03%) was contributed by individuals.

Here too, the BJP topped the list by garnering 1,207 donations (Rs 400.23 crore) from corporate sector while the Congress got just Rs 19.29 crore from 53 donations.

Prudent Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 164.30 crore to the BJP and the Congress together and is one of the top two donors of the two parties.

The trust donated Rs 154.30 cr to the BJP and Rs 10 crore to the Congress.

When it comes to states, Delhi topped the list with Rs 208.56 crore donations to the parties followed by Rs 71.93 crore from Maharashtra and Rs 44.02 crore from Gujarat.

Around Rs. 42.60 crore could not be attributed to any state due to incomplete information provided by the parties.

Incidentally, such donations in the last fiscal have decreased by Rs 119.49 crore, a 20% slide from 2016-17.

Donations to the BJP decreased from Rs 532.27 crore 17 to Rs 437.04 crore, which is an 18% decrease. For the Congress, the slide was from Rs 41.90 crore.