Corporate donations: BJP makes bigger killing than Cong

The corporate sector contributed around Rs 378.89 crore during the last eight years to political parties, an election research report has revealed . The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) study said out of Rs 435.87 crore collected by national parties between 2004-05 and 2011-12, as much as Rs 378.89 crore was donated by corporates and business houses.

The five national parties-the Congress, BJP, Nationalist Congress Party, CPI and the CPM- got Rs 378.89 crore during the period from corporates while the sixth national party, Bahujan Samaj Party, claimed that it received no voluntary contribution above Rs 20,000 from any donor during the period.

Interestingly, the report showed that corporate financial contribution to national parties during the period under review constituted 87 percent of the known sources of donation.

[caption id=“attachment_1305233” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image of BJP flags. AFP image[/caption]

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The report said the BJP received the maximum donation of Rs 192.47 crore from 1,334 corporates during the period. The BJP was followed by the Indian National Congress which received a total of Rs 172.25 crore from 418 donors from the corporate sector. However, if you look at corporate donations as a percentage of total donations, Congress leads with 92 percent of donation from corporates while BJP’s corporate donation as a percentage of total donations stood at 85 percent.

“Maximum number of donations was made by the manufacturing sector (595 donors contributing Rs 99.71 crore), followed by 340 donors from the real estate sector (Rs 24.10 crore),” the report said, adding that the least number of donations was made by hospitals, shipping, transport and communication sectors.

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Electoral trusts, too, donated the maximum amount of Rs 70.28 crore to the Congress (which has been leading the ruling coalition at the Centre since 2004), while the BJP got the highest amount from the manufacturing sector at Rs 58.18 crore, followed by Rs 17.06 crore from the power and oil sectors.

The study also said the Congress received foreign funds of Rs 9.8 crore and the BJP Rs 19.4 crore. The donors included the Vedanta group, Public and Political Awareness Trust of Vedanta, Hyatt Regency and Dow Chemicals.

You can see the full list of business donors below: