The BJP received nearly Rs 2,244 crore in donations of Rs 20,000 and above from donors in 2023-24, three times the amount it received in 2022-23. Interestingly, K Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) got the second highest contribution with Rs 580 crore, beating the Congress, which got Rs 289 crore.
Congress received Rs 79.9 crore in donations of Rs 20,000 and above last year. Simply put, BJP’s donations are 776.82 percent more than Congress.
The largest donor to both the BJP and the Congress was the Prudent Electoral Trust. According to the information on the Election Commission of India (ECI) website, the BJP received Rs 723 crore and the Congress received Rs 156 crore from the Prudent Electoral Trust.
The Prudent Electoral Trust has also donated Rs 85 crore and Rs 62.5 crore to BRS and Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress in 2023-24. Both the parties, however, failed to retain power in the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh elections respectively.
Among other parties, AAP has announced donations worth Rs 11.1 crore in 2023-24. Last year, AAP earned Rs 37.1 crore. The CPM has seen contributions rise to Rs 7.6 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 6.1 crore last year.
I The election commission has been announcing donations obtained by different political parties after the Supreme Court canceled the electoral bond scheme in February this year.
Calling it “unconstitutional”, the Supreme Court said that the system of electoral bonds, which allows anonymous donations to political parties, violated the right to information of citizens, has an impact on free speech and expression.
The high court ordered the poll watchers to disclose the donors, the amounts donated by them and the recipients.
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