During the five-year period between FY 2016-17 and 2020-21, maximum corporate donations worth ₹163.544 cr were declared by the BJP from 1,519 donors
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the maximum corporate donations worth ₹163.54 crore over the past five years, a report released by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.
“During the five-year period between FY 2016-17 and 2020-21, maximum corporate donations worth ₹163.544 cr were declared by the BJP from 1,519 donors. BJP received the highest donations in the FY 2018-19 of ₹46.222 cr from 524 donations,” the report by the NGO seeking electoral reforms said.
The report found that four political parties received corporate donations from Gujarat, including BJP, the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and SKM, amounting to ₹174.06 crore from 1,571 corporate donors.
Meanwhile, the Congress received ₹10.464 crore from 47 corporate donors across the five years, receiving the highest donations from 10 donors worth ₹3.37 crore in FY 2019-20.
AAP received a comparatively minuscule amount of ₹3.2 lakh from corporate donations across the same period, with no donations between 2017-2020.
In 2018-2019, out of a total of 532 corporate donations worth ₹48.832 crore, BJP got the highest amount amounting ₹46.222 crore from 524 corporate donors across the five years amongst all political parties.
Comparatively, the Congress received ₹2.61 crore.
The ADR report also revealed that, out of the total corporate donations of ₹4,014.58 crore received by political parties across five years, 4.34% ( ₹174.06 crore) of the total corporate donations came from Gujarat.
The report reveals a rise in donations for national parties during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls amounting to ₹4,186.992 crore in FY 2019-20, rising from ₹3,750.41 crore in FY 2019-19 and ₹1,398.76 crore in FY 2017-18.
Meanwhile, regional parties received the highest contribution of ₹916.88 cr in FY 2018-19.
The cumulative donations declared by both national and regional political parties in their annual audit reports are ₹12,745 crore.
Out of this, ₹10,471 crore (82.15%) of the total donations in the five years was declared by eight national parties.
Regional parties declared the remaining amount of ₹2,274 crore.
ADR’s analysis is based on the annual reports of electoral trusts, audit and contribution reports submitted by the national and regional political parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI), as well as the data on electoral bonds shared by SBI through RTI applications
Another report released by ADR on Thursday revealed out of 788 candidates contesting for 89 seats in the first phase of the Gujarat polls, 100 of them have serious criminal charges (non-bailable offences, offences with a maximum punishment of 5 years or more, and offences related to assault, murder, kidnap, and rape) against them.
Of all the parties, 21% of the candidates have criminal cases, while 13% are facing serious charges, a figure which has risen as compared to 15% and 8% in the 2017 elections.
Out of all candidates, 27% of the total candidates have assets over ₹1 crore, even as 62% (492) of the candidates have studied only till classes 5 and 12.
The first phase in the 189-member assembly state will go to polls on December 1, and the second phase on December 5.
The counting of votes in Gujarat will take place on December 8.
