Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) said that the party has received ₹785.77 crores in donations from companies and individuals in its contribution report submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for 2019-20. BJP showed a continuous rise in the donations received in the last year.
BJP submitted its contribution report to Election Commission in February for the year 2019-20. However, the Election Commission uploaded the report on Tuesday. The amount that BJP received was five times more than the amount Congress party received in the same period 2019-20. The Congress’s donations in 2019-20 dropped from ₹146.78 crores in 2018-19 to ₹139.01 crores in 2019-20.
From the total ₹785.77 crores in contributions declared by BJP ₹217.75 crores came from the Prudent Electoral Trust,₹ 45.95 crores from Jankalyan Electoral Trust, ₹9 crores from A B General Electoral Trust, and ₹ 3.75 crores from Samaj Electoral Trust.
Prudent Electoral trust received funds from DLF Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited, and GMR Airport Developers. These are some of the major contributors.
The Congress received total donations of ₹58 crores from electoral trusts. Out of these, ₹ 31 crores came from Prudent Electoral Trust, ₹25 crores from Jankalyan Electoral Trust, and ₹2 crores from Samaj Electoral Trust.
Many other regional parties have received more funds than Congress. Telangana Rashtra Samithi received Rs 130.46 crore, Shiv Sena (Rs 111.4 crore), YSR Congress Party (Rs 92.7 crore), Biju Janata Dal (Rs 90.35), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIDMK) received Rs 89.6 crore, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Rs 64.90 crore).
Tata’s controlled Progressive Electoral Trust was the largest donor to political parties in 2018-19. However, for the year 2019-20, it did not figure in the list of donors. In 2018-19 it had disbursed Rs 472 crore to the BJP and Rs 55 crore to the Congress.