ADR Report: Political donations spike by 150%, BJP rakes in the most

The top two political parties have a common source of funds
ADR Report: Political donations spike by 150%, BJP rakes in the most
ADR Report: Political donations spike by 150%, BJP rakes in the most

As the total donation received by all national political increased by 150 % in financial year 2014-15 compared to the previous year, the BJP which co-incidentally came into power at the same time is also the biggest gainer.

According to a detailed report by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) based on declarations made by political parties to the Election Commission of India on donations above Rs 20,000, BJP received more than twice than the sum of the donations received by Congress, NCP, CPI and CPI (M) in 2014-15 financial year.

The total money received by the national political parties counting the donations above Rs 20, 000 amounted to Rs 622.38 crores for the 2014-15.

Although, there’s a huge disparity in the donations received by the political parties, all the parties have received more than the donations they got in the previous period.

The report says BJP received Rs 437.35 crores compared to Rs 170.86 crore for the previous term.  

The second on the list is Congress, receiving Rs 141.46 crores, a one-third of the amount BJP received.

NCP is the party which is third on the list receiving Rs 38.82 crores, while the CPI (M) and the CPI ranked fourth and fifth with donations of Rs 3.42 crore and Rs 1.33 crore respectively.    

The report also says that the BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000.

Going by the number of donations, 1234 transactions of above Rs 20, 000 were made for BJP while 280 were made for the Congress.

Out of the donations made to BJP, 73% of them were made by corporate while 27% were made by individual donors.

Almost all parties are guilty of hiding information

Over 98 % of Congress’s donations, amounting to Rs 138.98 crores complete cheque/DD details were missing, making it harder to trace the money trail. The party also left the PAN details of 11 donors who contributed in cash.

Among the more shocking revelations, there was duplication in PAN details provided by the BJP. In addition, there were 20 donors without details of PAN, Address or Mode of contribution.

The CPI did not provide PAN details of any of its 27 state secretaries who donated a total amount of Rs 76.81 lakhs

The top two political parties have a common source of funds

The same Bharti Group’s Satya Electoral Trust which funded 25 % of total BJP’s donation also funded 13% of Congress’s total collection, while General Electoral Trust which funded 38 % of Congress’s total funds, collected 14% of BJP’s total fund.

Interestingly, PAN details of the former were not available in the report submitted by Congress and the BJP only mentioned it once for a  donation of Rs 20 lakhs.

Contrary to the top two parties, CPI’s top donations came from individuals with Secretary, Kerala State Council (Rs 20 lakhs) followed by Sudhakar Reddy (Rs 17.88 lakhs).

Almost half of the donations come from donors with no mention of address

While 49 % of the of the total donations came from donors of undeclared address, Maharashtra ranks top with 42 % of the total contributions followed by Gujrat with only 4% and Delhi 3% going by the area of the address declared by the contributors.

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