New Delhi: More than 52% of the BJP’s political donations, worth Rs 5,271.97 crore, came from electoral bonds as against Rs 1,783.93 crore amassed by all other national political parties, according to a new report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).The report titled “Analysis of Donations to Registered Recognised Political Parties from FY 2016-17 to FY 2021-22“ analyses donations to the 31 recognised political parties – seven national and 24 regional parties – between financial year (FY) 2016-17 and FY 2021-22.The report said that the six-year period is significant because the Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced in 2018 for the purpose of electoral funding, while the Finance Act 2017 removed the earlier limit of 7.5% of a company’s average three-year net profit for political donations. A company is also not required to name the political parties to which such contributions are made under the 2018 scheme.The 2019 general elections also took place during this period along with a total of 45 state elections.The report said that the total donations declared by the seven national parties and 24 regional parties in this period were Rs 13,190.68 crore (80% of total donations) and Rs 3,246.95 crore, respectively.National partiesThe total donations declared by BJP are more than three times the total donations declared by all other national parties.The report said that during this six-year period, more than 52% of BJP’s total donations came from electoral bonds worth Rs 5271.97 crore.The Congress declared the second-highest donations from bonds at Rs 952.29 crore which accounts for just over 60% of its total donations. This was followed by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), which declared Rs 767.88 crore, accounting for almost 93% of its total donations.Regional partiesAmong regional parties, almost 90% of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)’s total donations worth Rs 622 crore came from electoral bonds. Among regional parties, DMK declared the second highest donations from bonds, at Rs 431.50 crore (90.7% of its total donations).This was followed by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which declared Rs 383.65 crore accounting for 80.45% of its total donations and YSRCP, which declared Rs 330.44 crore that made up 72.43% of its total donations. The report added that the corporate donations declared by the BJP are at least three-four times more than the total corporate donations of all other national parties.In comparison, in FY 2017-18, it was more than 18 times that of all other national parties.Direct corporate donations declared by regional parties also increased by 152% in this period.The only party which has no declared corporate donations is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) while the Communist Party of India declared receiving zero corporate donations from FY 2018-19 to FY 2021-22, the report said.The report added that the highest donations were received during 2019, when general elections were held.In FY 2019-20, donations worth Rs 4,863.5 crore were received in the form of electoral bonds, followed by Rs 4,041.4 crore in FY 2018-19 and Rs 3826.56 crore in FY 2021-22.The electoral bonds scheme has been criticised for its lack of transparency. Petitions challenging its constitutionality are pending before the Supreme Court.In January, the apex court categorised the petitions challenging the electoral bonds scheme into three sets to hear them separately.These include the challenge to the electoral bonds scheme; whether political parties should be brought within the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005; and the challenge to the amendment to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 through the Finance Act of 2016 and 2018.
