BJP receives 90% of corporate donations

Not surprisingly, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) received the lion’s share, almost 90 per cent, of the corporate donations disbursed in 2016-17 through electoral trusts formed for the purpose, reveals a report compiled by the ADR ( Association for Democratic Reforms) based on the declarations submitted by the trusts to the Election Commission.

While the BJP received INR 290.22 Crore, nine political parties including Indian National Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal received INR 35 crore.

BJP received bulk of the donations from two electoral trusts, Prudent and Janta Nirvachak Trust, which disbursed 88.90 per cent and 100 per cent of the donations received by them respectively to the BJP.

Satya/Prudent Electoral Trust, which received the biggest chunk of contributions from corporates like the DLF group, UPL Ltd, JSW Energy and Piramal Enterprises, Bharti Airtel, Essar and Grasim Cements among others, and the Janata Nirvachak Trust, said an analysis by ADR, a non-profit working in the field of electoral reforms.

Prudent Electoral Trust received the highest contributions of ₹283.73 crore in 2016-17 and distributed ₹283.72 crore to nine political parties apart from the BJP– ₹16.5 crore to Congress, ₹9 crore to the Shiromani Akali Dal, ₹6.5 crore to Samajwadi Party, ₹1 crore each to Aam Aadmi Party and Shiv Sena, and the rest to the Trinamool Congress, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the People’s Democratic Party and National Conference.

The ADR report, released on Monday, also reveals:

• Three Trusts disbursed entire donation received by them to single political parties, namely BJP, All India Trinamool Congress and the Indian National Congress
• Only 14 of the 21 Trusts registered with the Central Board of Direct Taxes submitted details to the EC.
• Only 6 Trusts of these 14 claimed to have received donations.
• 9 Trusts claim to have disbursed INR 637.54 Crore to political parties during 2013-2017.
• Only two Trusts have filed declarations for all the four years since 2013.
• Only two individuals, Suresh Kotak and Analjit Singh, apparently donated to the electoral trusts.
• The top corporate donors include DLF, UPL, JSW Energy, Piramal, Bharti Airtel, Ultra Tech, Grasim and DLF Cybercity.