Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) received a total of Rs 477.545 crore from 2,206 donations followed by Rs 74.524 crore from 1,077 donations declared by Indian National Congress (INC) during the Financial Year (FY) 2020-21. A total of Rs 246.502 crore was donated to the national parties from Delhi, followed by Rs 71.681 crore from Maharashtra and Rs 47.071 crore from Gujarat, according to a report prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The National parties mentioned in the report include BJP, INC, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and National People’s Party (NPEP). The report further says that 1,398 donations to the national parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 480.655 crore (80.953 per cent of total donations) while 2258 individual donors donated Rs 111.65 crore (18.804 per cent of total donations) to the parties during FY 2020-21.
Nearly 1,111 donations from corporate/business sectors were made to BJP (Rs 416.794 crore) while 1071 individual donors donated Rs 60.37 crore to the party during FY 2020-21. The Congress received a total of Rs 35.89 crore via 146 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 38.634 crore via 931 individual donors during FY 2020-21. The donations declared by the BJP are more than four times the aggregate declared by INC, NCP, CPI, CPM, NPEP and AITC for the same period.
ADR focused on donations received by the national political parties above Rs 20,000 during the financial year 2020-21, as submitted by the parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI). The Bahujan Samaj Party has declared that it did not get any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2020-21. The ADR report further says that the total donations of the national parties during FY 2020-21 decreased by Rs 420.652 crore, a decrease of 41.49 per cent from the previous financial year 2019-20.
Donations to BJP decreased from Rs 785.77 crore during FY 2019-20 to Rs 477.545 crore during FY 2020-21 (a 39.23 per cent decrease). Congress donations decreased from Rs 139.016 crore during FY 2019-20 to Rs 74.524 crore during FY 2020-21 (46.39 per cent decrease). Segregation of donations was made by ADR based on the addresses provided by the parties in their donations report to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
It is only the BSP that submitted its contribution report on time while the NCP, AITC, CPM, NPEP, INC, BJP and CPI submitted reports after a delay of 10 days, 117 days, 136 days, 137 days, 161 days, 164 days and 178 days, respectively. The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the national parties for FY 2020-21 was Rs 593.748 crore from 3,753 donations.
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