Electoral Bonds: How Much Has BJP and Congress Received As Corporate Donations?

How much has the ruling BJP and Congress received electoral bonds in the last five years? Well, the saffron party has received 57 per cent of the funds, and the Opposition party has security just 10 per cent, as per the ADR data.

Electoral bonds contributed donations exceeding Rs 9,188 crore to all political parties collectively until 2021-22, as per ADR data. From 2016-17 to 2021-22, the period covered by the available data, seven national parties and 24 regional parties collectively received a total donation of Rs 9,188.35 crore through electoral bonds.

The BJP received Rs 5,272 crore, and the Congress received Rs 952 crore, with the rest distributed among other parties. It is followed by the TMC, which has declared contributions totalling Rs 767.88 crore.

As reported by NDTV, in the financial year concluding in March 2022, the Trinamool Congress secured Rs 528 crore. In 2021, they received Rs 42 crore, Rs 100 crore in 2020, and Rs 97 crore in 2019.

Going by the ADR data, there was a surge in electoral bond nations for national parties witnessing a 743 per cent increase between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22. In comparison, corporate donations to national parties increased by only 48 per cent during the same period.

State parties also received a substantial proportion of their donations through electoral bonds, the report said.

This report comes at a time when a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court started hearing a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties.

The electoral bonds scheme, introduced through a Finance Bill in 2017, became operational in 2018.

It acts as a method for both individuals and entities to contribute to registered political parties while preserving the anonymity of the donors.

The State Bank of India (SBI) issues these bonds in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore.