The ruling political party at the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party, received the most – Rs 705.81 crore out of Rs 956.77 crore – from 2,987 corporate donors between 2012-13 and 2015-16, according to analysis of known donations above Rs 20,000 from corporates and business houses to national parties by Association of Democratic Reforms, an advocacy. BJP was followed by the Indian National Congress with Rs 198.16 crore from 167 corporate donors.
Political parties considered by ADR included BJP, INC, Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist). Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati was not considered, as it declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 between 2012-13 and 2015-16.
As many as 1,933 donations – through which national parties received Rs 384.04 crore – did not have PAN details in the contribution form.
We storified a thread of tweets put out on August 18, 2017, to give you an idea of corporate donations to national parties in India between 2012-13 and 2015-16.
This article first appeared on Indiaspend, a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.
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