NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP received contributions of over Rs 2,600 crore during 2023-24 while the opposition Congress got Rs 281.38 crore in its kitty, according to contribution reports of the two parties put in public domain by the Election Commission (EC).
The donations listed in the reports were received till March 31, ahead of the Lok Sabha election. BJP had declared donations worth over Rs 740 crore ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, while the Congress had claimed to have received over Rs 146 crore in 2018-19.
During 2023-24, while BJP received over Rs 723 crore worth of donations from Prudent Electoral Trust, it also got over Rs 127 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and over Rs 17 lakh from Einzigartig Electoral Trust.
The Congress got over Rs 150 crore from the Prudent Electoral Trust, which was the sole trust donor to the party.
Interestingly, the Congress received multiple donations of Rs 1.38 lakh, including those from top leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal and Digvijaya Singh, among others.
Multiple donations were made to the Congress under the heading “Happy Birthday to our leader — JKB”.
The contributions declared by the Congress and BJP do not include the donations received through electoral bonds as these have to be declared in the party’s annual audit reports and not contribution statements.
AAP, which is also a recognised national party, received contributions of over Rs 11.06 crore during the fiscal.
Another recognised national party, CPI-M, received donations worth over Rs 7.64 crore.
The National People’s Party (NPP), which is the only recognised national party from the North East, got over Rs 14.85 lakh in its kitty.
BJP was also a major beneficiary of electoral bonds purchased by big corporate groups like Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Muthoot, Baja Auto, Jindal group and TVS Motors.
The party also received Rs 3 crore through multiple donations from Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd owned by Santiago Martin, also known as ‘Lottery King’ of India. He is under scanner of ED and the IT department for alleged money laundering.
Future Gaming was also the biggest donor through electoral bonds route with the TMC being the top beneficiary.
The company had donated Rs 542 crore to TMC, Rs 503 crore to DMK and Rs 154 crore to the YSR Congress Party.