Revealed: The largest corporate donor to BJP's poll fund in 2012-13

While 90 percent of donations received by political parties are from sources whose identities are not in the public domain, among the known donors, industrial house Aditya Birla Group, has emerged as the largest contributor to the BJP, and the Torrent Group to the Congress, according to data provided by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The Birla group donated Rs 7.50 crore through the General Electoral Trust in 2012-13, while Torrent Power donated Rs 3.50 crore to Congress and Torrent Pharmaceuticals Rs 1.50 crore.

ADR has analysed income and expenditure statements submitted by six national political parties for 2012-13 to the Election Commission.

Other top donors to the BJP were Mumbai’sLodha Dwellers Pvt Ltd (Rs 6.99 crore) and Torrent Power (Rs 6.57 crore) were the other top donors to the BJP during 2012-13. In comparison, Torrent Power’s contribution to the Congress was much lower.

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[caption id=“attachment_89003” align=“aligncenter” width=“600”]  Source:ADR[/caption]

The Election Commission makes it binding on political parties to submit annual details of donations - name, address, PAN number of the donor besides the mode and amount of payment - received above Rs 20,000 from all over India.

While thetotal income of national parties for 2012-13 was Rs 991.20 crore,total donations above Rs 20,000 declared were only Rs 99.14 crore, from 3,777 donors. This means that national political parties have turned a blind eye to the EC stipulation. The lion’s share of the declared income belongs to the Congress and BJP.

The Congress had the highest total income of Rs 425.69 crore, followed by the BJP with Rs 324.16 crore. The BSP declared Rs 87.63 crore income, followed by the NCP with Rs 26.56 crore, the CPI Rs 1.07 crore and the CPI(M) Rs 126.09 crore for FY 2012-13.

[caption id=“attachment_89006” align=“aligncenter” width=“544”]  Source: ADR[/caption]

So of a total of 3, 777 donors to the national parties (about Rs 99 crore), 1,327 belonged to thecorporate or business sector and donated 72 percent (Rs 71.02 crore) and individualdonations amounted to Rs 17.01 crore or 17.16 percent of the total donations. Details of the donations worth a whopping Rs 11.09 crore have not been provided to the EC.

Party-wise donations without declaration of PAN details

Out of 3,777 donors, 2,371 (63%) have not declared their PAN details. The BJP tops the list with 1,670 donors who donated Rs 25.98 crore but failed to declare their PAN details, followed by the Congress with 61 donors who donated Rs 10.05 crore. Interestingly,CPM, a vociferous critic of everything capitalist, had19 corporates who donated Rs 1.28 crore but the party has not not been furnished their PAN.