Politics, funded by business: Electoral trusts biggest donors in 2016-18

Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year to the Election Commission every year. Parties provide the name, address, PAN number, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has contributed more than Rs 20,000 in their submissions.

This data analyses the donations from corporate houses to national parties in 2016-17 and 2017-18.  Political parties considered for the report are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress (INC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India Marxist  (CPM), and the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Though a national party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has not been considered for analysis in this report because the party has declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from any donor during this period, as well as during the period since 2004. 

During the two years, various sectors of business houses donated Rs 985.18 crore, constituting 93 per cent of the total contribution to political parties from known sources.

Donations from corporate houses to national parties increased by 160 per cent from 2004-12 to 2016-18.

In 2016-17 and 2017-18, electoral trusts were the biggest donors to the national parties, contributing as much as Rs 488.42 crore. The real estate sector was the second highest overall contributor in 2016-17, contributing Rs 49.94 crore. In 2017-18, the manufacturing sector was the second highest overall contributor with Rs 74.74 crore.