In FY 2019-20, when the Lok Sabha elections were conducted, political parties received over £92 million in the form of corporate donations, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms. The report analysed corporate donations to five national parties: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM). The BJP was the biggest recipient of corporate donations made in FY20 followed by the INC and NCP.
Prudent Electoral Trust was the top contributor to the BJP and INC followed by Jankalyan Electoral Trust and ITC Limited. It is to be noted that donations through electoral bonds still constitute the lion’s share in the total income of the BJP and INC.
Corporate donations in FY 20 constituted 91% of the total contribution to political parties from known sources. Known sources are donations above Rs 20,000, whose donor details are available with the Election Commission of India.
The Bahujan Samaj Party was not considered in the analysis as the party declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from any donor during this period. The Communist Party of India did not declare any income from corporates for FY 2019-20.
