BJP gets 12 times more high value donations than other parties

High value donations or any donation above Rs 20,000 declared by the national parties were Rs 469.89 crore for the year 2017-18.
Out of this, BJP received chunk of the funds at Rs 437.04 crore, while Congress got Rs 26.65 crore.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has declared high value donations totalling more than Rs 437 crore for the last fiscal, which is 12 times of the sum total of donations declared by all other national parties including the Congress, in the last financial year, an electoral think-tank said on Wednesday.

The maximum amount of donations to both the BJP and the Congress came from Prudent Electoral Trust, which is backed by some big corporate houses, including major players in the realty and telecom sectors, according to ADR or Association for Democratic Reforms.

Prudent Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 164.30 crore to the BJP and the Congress combined.

Of this the BJP got Rs 154.30 crore, which is 35 per cent of the total funds received by the party, and the Congress got Rs 10 crore, which is 38 per cent of its total funds.

High value donations or any donation above Rs 20,000 declared by the national parties were Rs 469.89 crore for the year 2017-18.

Out of this, BJP received chunk of the funds at Rs 437.04 crore, while Congress got Rs 26.65 crore.

'The donations declared by BJP is 12 times more than the aggregate declared by Congress, NCP, CPI, CPM and Trinamool Congress for the same period,' ADR said in a statement.

Nearly 90 per cent of the total donations to the national parties were made by corporate houses, while 10 per cent were by individuals.

Corporate houses and businesses donated Rs 400.23 crore to the BJP and only Rs 19.29 crore to the Congress in 2017-18.

Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party declared that it did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during 2017-18, as it has been declaring for the past 12 years, the Delhi-based think-tank said.

Almost half of the declared donations, Rs 208.56 crore, came from Delhi, followed by Rs 71.93 crore from Maharashtra and Rs 44.02 crore from Gujarat.

Rs 42.60 crore or 9.07 per cent of the total donations could not be attributed to any state or union territory due to incomplete information, ADR said.

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Karnataka poll: BJP spent over Rs 122 cr for campaign, Rs 84 cr for media and publicity

The BJP has spent over Rs 122 crore to contest assembly elections in Karnataka, with more than Rs 84 crore used for media and publicity, according to the expenditure details submitted by the party to the Election Commission.

The party incurred an expenditure of another Rs 14 crore for contesting similar polls in three northeast states.

It recently submitted 'election expenditure statements' for polls in four states and said it has spent Rs 122.68 crore during the Karnataka polls that took place in May last year.

The Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition formed government in the state after the polls.

Out of the total funds, more than Rs 84 crore was spent on advertisements in print and electronic media, bulk SMSes, cable, websites and general party propaganda, the BJP said in its report to the EC.

This was followed by expenditure of over RS 16 crore for travel of its star campaigners in the state, the report said.

The party also sent to the commission a similar report of expenses, made by its central office and state units, for contesting polls in the Northeast states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland.

The report filed by the BJP stated that over Rs 14.18 crore has been spent to contest polls in these states, where elections took place last year.

While in Meghalaya the party spent Rs 3.8 crore, it spent Rs 6.96 crore in Tripura and Rs 3.36 crore in Nagaland.

The expenses include cost incurred by the party under various heads like star campaigners, media, publicity, processions, helicopter sorties, election paraphernalia and road travel of its leaders and candidates.