The BJP and Congress received Rs 67.25 crore (9.06 percent) and Rs 39 crore (26.25 percent), respectively from the Prudent Electoral Trust
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party received Rs 742 crore in donations, while the Congress got Rs 148 crore, as per the submissions made by the parties before the Election Commission of India (ECI) for 2018-19 which was compiled by think tank the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The ADR said, “The donations for the BJP increased from Rs 437.04 crore during 2017-18 to Rs 742.15 crore during 2018-19, a rise of 70 percent”.
The Congress’ donations increased from Rs 26 crore during 2017-18 to Rs 148.58 crore during 2018-19, a rise of 457 percent, it said the party’s donations had decreased by 36 percent between 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The ADR added, “A total of Rs 742.15 crore was declared by the BJP from 4,483 donations while the Congress declared receiving Rs 148.58 crore from 605 donations,”.
Meanwhile, the donations declared by the BJP is three times the aggregate of what has been declared by the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Trinamool Congress Party during the same time.
The statement said, “1,575 donations from corporate/business sectors were made to BJP (Rs 698.092 crore) while 2,741 individual donors donated Rs 41.70 crore to the party during FY 2018-19.”
“The Congress party received a total of Rs 122.5 crore via 122 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 25.39 crore via 482 individual donors during FY 2018-19”
The Bahujan Samaj Party declared that it did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2018-19, as it has been declaring for the past 13 years.
The Progressive Electoral Trust donated Rs 455.15 crore to the BJP, Congress and Trinamool Congress together and is one of the top two donors to the three parties that received the maximum donations.
The trust donated Rs 356.535 crore to the BJP (48.04 percent of total funds received by the party) and Rs 55.629 crore to the Congress (37.44 percent).
The BJP and Congress received Rs 67.25 crore (9.06 percent) and Rs 39 crore (26.25 percent), respectively from the Prudent Electoral Trust.
The statement added that the BJP declared 452 donations of Rs 514.48 crore, the Trinamool Congress party collected 89 donations of Rs 44.26 crore and the Congress received 51 donations of Rs 4.51 crore having incomplete cheque or DD details where cheque number and bank details on which it was drawn and the date on which the cheque was received or encashed is not provided.
“However, without the complete cheque or DD details, it would be a time-consuming process to link the donors against their donations and hence trace the money trail,” it added.
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