Although, in February 2024, the Supreme Court of India put down the electoral bond scheme, Indian political parties dauntlessly received large fund contributions. Out of them, the BJP had collected ₹2244 crore in election donations during 2023-24. This amount is three times higher than what the party received in 2022-23 and 776.82 percent higher compared to ₹289 crore, which Congress got during the same period.
More surprisingly, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, led by the former chief minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao, collected the second-highest donation of ₹580 crore and overcame Congress. At the same time, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received ₹11.1 crore in 2023-24, down from ₹37.1 crore in the previous financial year.
The disclosures showed that the BJP and Congress got the major share of their donations from the Prudent Electoral Trust. The trust donated ₹723 crore to BJP, which was 29% of its total income, and ₹156 crore to Congress, which was 51% of its total intake. The major funders of Prudent Electoral Trust are Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited, Serum Institute, Arcelor Mittal Group, Bharti Airtel Telecom Limited etc.
It may be noted that BJP and Congress’s own tally of electoral bonds does not include those received by other parties; as per the rules of transparency, the parties have only to declare electoral bond fund particulars in their audit reports and not in the contribution reports.
The BJP’s donations also surged 212% in 2023-24 from the previous year, according to the report. Such a surge is evident during election times, particularly before the general elections in 2018-19, while BJP got ₹742 crore and Congress ₹146.8 crore.
In the financial year 2023-24, BJP has received ₹850 crores through electoral trusts, out of which ₹723 crores from Prudent, ₹127 crores from Triumph Electoral Trust, and ₹17,200 from Ingiegarting Electoral Trust made it clear that BJP has efficient fundraising systems.
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