BJP has received a whopping Rs. 720 crore of the total Rs. 921 crore donated by Corporate and business houses for 2019-20, according to a report.

The donation which is highest among all other political parties, the BJP has received a whopping Rs. 720 crore of the total Rs. 921 crore donated by Corporate and business houses for 2019-20, according to a report.

The report claims that donations from corporate companies to the national parties have increased by 109 % between  2017-18 and 2018-19.

An NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which has been publishing reports regularly on political donations,  said that the calculation was done on the basis of details given by the parties to the Election Commission of India of donors who has made donations above ₹ 20,000 in a financial year.

The five parties who were considered for making reports are; BJP, the Congress, NCP, TMC and CPM.

According to the report, out of the five national parties, the BJP received the maximum donations of ₹ 720.407 crores from 2,025 corporate donors during FY 2019-20, followed by the INC which received a total contribution of ₹ 133.04 crores from 154 donors, and the NCP with ₹ 57.086 crores from 36 corporate donors.

The CPM declared no income from corporate donations for 2019-20, it said.

The NGO claims that Prudent Electoral Trust was the top donor to the BJP and the Congress in 2019-20. The Trust donated 38 times in a single year to the two parties each, amounting to a total of ₹ 247.75 crores.

"The BJP declared receiving ₹ 216.75 crores and Congress received ₹ 31.00 crores from Prudent Electoral Trust. BG Shirke Construction Technology Pvt. Ltd. was the top donor to NCP in 2019-20," it said.

The report said that between 2012-13 and 2019-20, donations from corporate and business houses to the national parties increased by 1,024 per cent.