10 Jun , 2021 By : Debdeep Gupta
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received Rs 785.77 crore in donations from corporates and individuals in 2019-2020, The Hindu reported citing the party’s annual funding report submitted to the Election Commission (EC).
Out of this, a sum of Rs 217.75 crore was donated by the Prudent Electoral Trust. The trust in turn received funds from Bharti Airtel, DLF, and GMR Airport Developers, among other major corporates, the news report suggested.
The newspaper report cited the BJP’s report published by the EC as saying that the saffron party received Rs 45.95 crore from the Jankalyan Electoral Trust, which in turn received funds from JSW Group companies such as JSW Cement, JSW Energy, and JSW Energy.
AB General Electoral Trust and Samaj Electoral Trust donated BJP Rs 9 crore and Rs 3.75 crore respectively.
Some of the other companies that donated to the political party currently in power at the Centre in several states are ITC Limited and Haldiram Snacks.
The funding report submitted to the election authority in February includes all contributions of Rs 20,000 or more made through cheque and bank transfer. According to the law, political funding in the country can be done anonymously for donations below Rs 20,000. Therefore, declared donations above this amount are taken as a representation of genuine corporate political funding.
The amount received by the BJP through such donations is more than five times of what its main national-level rival, the Indian National Congress, got during the same period. Congress received Rs 139.01 crore in donations, the party reportedly informed the EC in February.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and its rival, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), declared contributions of Rs 8.08 crore and Rs 19.69 crore for FY20 respectively.
Former union minister Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is part of the governing coalition in Maharashtra, declared receiving such contributions worth Rs 59.94 crore, the news report added. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared nil contributions.
In 2018-19, the five national political parties – BJP, Congress, NCP, CPM, and TMC – had together received Rs 876.1 crore from 1,775 corporate donors. Even then, the top donors included the Progressive Electoral Trust, the Prudent Electoral Trust, and the AB General Electoral Trust.
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