Where the buck stops: BJP gets 3x more donations via poll bonds than others

Among regional parties, nearly 90% of the Biju Janata Dal's total donations worth Rs. 692.6 crore came from electoral bonds at Rs. 622 crore

More than 52 per cent of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) political donations, worth Rs. 5,271.97 crore, came from electoral bonds, compared to Rs. 1,783.93 crore collected by other national political parties, according to a new report by the think tank Association for Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch.
 

Even as the total donations declared by the BJP are more than 3x of the total donations declared by all other national parties, the Congress is a distant second, having declared the second-highest donations from bonds at Rs. 952.29 crore, which accounts for just over 60 per cent of its total donations.
 

Among regional parties, nearly 90 per cent of the Biju Janata Dal’s total donations worth Rs. 692.6 crore came from electoral bonds at Rs. 622 crore.
 

Among regional parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam declared the second-highest donations from bonds, at Rs. 431.5 crore (90.7 per cent of its total donations).
 

The report titled Analysis of Donations to Registered Recognised Political Parties from 2016-17 to 2021-22 analyses donations to the 31 recognised political parties — seven national and 24 regional parties — between financial years 2016-17 and 2021-22.
 

The report states that the six-year period is significant because the Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced in 2018 for the purpose of electoral funding, while the Finance Act, 2017, removed the earlier limit of 7.5 per cent of a company’s average three-year net profit for political donations. A company is also not required to name the political parties to which such contributions are made under the 2018 scheme.
 

The report highlights that the total donations declared by the seven national parties and 24 regional parties in this period were Rs. 13,190.68 crore (80 per cent of total donations) and Rs. 3,246.95 crore (19.75 per cent), respectively. For national parties, there was a 743 per cent increase in donations from electoral bonds between 2017–18 and 2021–22, while corporate donations increased by 48 per cent. 
 

The highest donations were received in 2019–20, the year of general elections (Rs. 4,863.5 crore), followed by Rs. 4,041.48 crore in 2018–19 and Rs. 3,826.56 crore in 2021–22.

Source: Adr & Pti