The reported donations from seven parties – BJP, Congress, NCP, Trinamool Congress, BSP, CPM and National People’s Party – in their latest reports on contributions submitted to the Election Commission, amount to Rs 778.7 crore. This figure, however, excludes the CPI as the EC has yet to upload the 2021-22 party contributions report to its website. In 2020-21, the total contributions received from all eight national parties amounted to Rs 592 crore.
There was an over 41 per cent drop in total donations to national parties in 2020-21 (Rs 592 crore) compared to 2019-20 (Rs 1,015 crore). However, there was a small increase between 2020-21 and 2021-22, even without counting the CPI.
Of the donations of Rs 614.5 crore reported by the BJP in its contribution report for 2021-22, more than 56 per cent came from two campaign funds. Prudent electoral confidence – with Bharti Airtel Group, Arcelor Mittal Group, GMR Group, DLF, Torrent Power and Serum Institute as major donors – disbursed Rs 336.5 crore to the incumbent party at the Centre, compared to Rs 209 crore in the 2020-21. Donations worth Rs 10 crore to the BJP were routed through the AB General electoral confidence.
Congress has seen an increase of more than 28% – almost on par with the BJP – in contributions received, which have grown to almost Rs 95.5 crore in 2021-22 from 74.5 crore in 2020-21. As contributions of more than Rs 20,000 to NCP led by Sharad Pawar increased by 120% to Rs 57.9 crore in 2021-22 from Rs 26.2 crore in 2020-21, Congress kitty Trinamool grew by a mere 1 % to Rs 43 lakh from Rs 42.5 lakh in the same period.
