BJP got Rs 437.35 crore in donations, Congress Rs 141.60 crore in FY15

In line with their swinging fortunes, the two leading national political parties - BJP and Congress - saw a huge difference in the number of donors and donations during financial year 2014-15.

Another feature is the nature of donations, skewed towards corporates, at more than 90%.

While the BJP got Rs 437.35 crore from 1,234 donors, the Congress had to contend with Rs 141.60 crore given by 280 donors.

Besides, the BJP also saw a sharp jump in donations, from Rs 170.86 crore in 2013-14, while the Congress too saw a three-fold rise from Rs 59.58 crore.

Corporate donors accounted for a disproportionate share of 92.61%, or Rs 576.37 crore, while individuals donated Rs 45.23 crore, or 7.27%.

Among corporate donors, Bharti Group's Satya Electoral Trust donated Rs 132 crore to the BJP, the Congress and the NCP.

The Trust donated Rs 107.25 crore to the BJP (25% of total funds received by the party), Rs 18.75 crores to the Congress (13% of total funds received by the party) and Rs 6 crore to the NCP.

General Electoral Trust donated Rs 117.30 crore to Amit Sha-led BJP and the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress in 2014-15.

In terms of states, Rs 260.01 crore was donated to the national parties from Maharashtra by corporates and individuals together, followed by Rs 24.76 crore from Gujarat and Rs 15.34 crore from Delhi.

The top corporate donors to the BJP's coffers included Kirloskar Oil and Sundaram Finance; also, 69.3% of the donors to the BJP did not declare their address.

The details are from a report prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) based on contributions above Rs 20,000 received by political parties. 

The donations declared by the BJP are more than twice the aggregate declared by the Congress, the NCP, the CPI and the CPM for the same period, according to the report.

The national parties include the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M).