BJP received over 6 times more donations than Congress in 2023-24: Report

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remained ahead among national parties in terms of donation receipts and got over six times more donations— ₹2,243.94 crore in 2023-24 compared to ₹719.85 crore in the 2022-23 financial year (211.72% increase)—vis-a-vis the main Opposition Congress, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report. Political parties are mandated to disclose contributions of over ₹20,000.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared it did not receive any donations above ₹20,000 in the financial year 2023-24 for the first time in 18 years. The party’s support base has eroded since Mayawati became the chief minister for the fourth time with a full majority in 2007.

The BSP failed to win any seats in the 2024 national polls and got just one seat in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly in 2022. It contested the 2019 national polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and improved its tally from zero to 10 seats.

Congress’s donations rose from ₹79.92 crore to ₹281.48 crore, reflecting a 252.18% increase, while those to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) decreased by 70.18%, or ₹26.03 crore.

The ADR report released on Monday said national parties AAP, National People’s Party (NPP), Congress, BJP, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI-M declared donations of ₹2,544.27 crore in 2023-24, compared to ₹850.43 crore in the previous year. The donations overall increased by 199.17%.

The AAP declared ₹11.06 crore, NPP ₹14 lakh, and CPI(M) ₹7.6 crore. The report said the BJP, Congress, NPP, and CPI(M) did not declare the Permanent Account Number (PAN) details for 889 donations through which the parties collected ₹19.8 crore. Congress ( ₹73.90 lakh), BJP ( ₹51.70 lakh), and CPI(M) ( ₹33 lakh) declared 84 donations with missing or incorrect PAN details.

“BJP declared 1,564 donations of ₹1,384.6 crore, INC [Indian National Congress] collected 536 donations of ₹244.571 crore, AAP collected 168 donations of ₹5.325 crore, CPI(M) collected 286 donations of ₹4.547 crore, and NPP collected one donation of ₹5 lakh–all having incomplete cheque or demand draft details, where cheque numbers, bank details on which they were drawn, and the dates on which the cheques were received or encashed are not provided.” The report said that without the complete cheque/demand draft details, it would be time-consuming to link the donors to their donations and trace the money trail.