One third of BJP’s donations and half of Congress’s donations come from the same trust, know which party received how much donations

New Delhi: According to the Election Commission, BJP received about Rs 2244 crore in the form of donations of Rs 20,000 and above from individual, trust and corporate houses in 2023-24. This amount is more than three times that of 2022-23. At the same time, Congress got Rs 288.9 crore through this means in 2023-24, whereas last year this amount was Rs 79.9 crore. This figure excludes the amount received through electoral bonds, which parties have to show in their annual audit report. The Supreme Court had canceled the electoral bond scheme in February 2024. After this, donations have become the main source of funding for parties.

BJP received maximum donations

The biggest contribution to the donations received by BJP was from Prudent Electoral Trust, which gave Rs 723.6 crore. Prudent also gave Rs 156.4 crore to Congress. That means almost one-third of BJP’s total donations and more than half of Congress’s donations came from Prudent. Prudent’s largest donors in 2022-23 included Megha Engineering & Infra Ltd, Serum Institute, ArcelorMittal Group and Bharti Airtel.

The amount of electoral bonds is not included in these figures

The money received from electoral bonds is not included in these figures of BJP and Congress. As per rules, parties have to give information about electoral bonds in their annual audit report and not in the donation report. However, some regional parties have voluntarily disclosed the amount received from electoral bonds in their donation reports. These include BRS (Rs 495.5 crore), DMK (Rs 60 crore) and YSR Congress (Rs 121.5 crore). JMM also announced getting Rs 11.5 crore through bonds, while it got only Rs 64 lakh from other sources.

212% increase in BJP’s donations

There has been an increase of 212% in the donations received by BJP in 2023-24 as compared to 2022-23. This is normal, as it was the year before the general elections. In 2018–19, ahead of the 2019 general elections, BJP had announced donations of Rs 742 crore and Congress Rs 146.8 crore. BJP received a total of Rs 850 crore through electoral trusts, of which Rs 723 crore came from Prudent, Rs 127 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and Rs 17.2 lakh from Engaging Electoral Trust. Congress received more than Rs 156 crore from the trust, but Prudent was the only donor here.

These parties also received donations

Prudent also gave Rs 85 crore to BRS and Rs 62.5 crore to YSR Congress in 2023-24. Both these parties were thrown out of power in the same year. Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party TDP received Rs 33 crore from Prudent. DMK received Rs 8 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and Jai Bharat Trust.

Which company donated

BJP has announced to receive a donation of Rs 3 crore from Future Gaming and Hotel Services in 2023-24. This company belongs to Santiago Martin, who is also known as the ‘Lottery King’ of India. Future Gaming was the biggest donor through electoral bonds and TMC was its biggest beneficiary. Martin is under investigation by ED and Income Tax for alleged money laundering.

How much donation did other parties receive?

Among other national parties, the Aam Aadmi Party announced donations of Rs 11.1 crore in 2023-24, down from Rs 37.1 crore last year. CPM’s donations increased from Rs 6.1 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 7.6 crore in 2023-24. NPP in Meghalaya announced donations of Rs 14.8 lakh.

BSP once again announced that no donation above Rs 20,000 will be received. BJD also announced zero donations for the financial year 2023-24. TDP announced donations of over Rs 100 crore in 2023-24, while Samajwadi Party declared Rs 46.7 lakh compared to Rs 33 crore last year.