BRS got more donations than Congress, BJP got Rs 2244 crore donation, know which party got how much

New Delhi. This year was pleasant for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not only in terms of electoral results but also the party’s bank account got a lot of donations. BJP received Rs 2,244 crore as donations from people, trusts and corporate houses in 2023-24, which is three times more than the donations received in 2022-23.

On the other hand, Congress received about Rs 289 crore in 2023-24, while last year it got Rs 79.9 crore. Both BJP and Congress received the highest donation from Prudent Electoral Trust, which gave Rs 723 crore to BJP and Rs 156 crore to Congress. Simply put, almost a third of BJP’s donations and more than half of Congress’ donations in 2023-24 came from Prudent Electoral Trust.

BJP got 776.82% more donations than Congress
This year, BJP got 776.82% more donations than Congress. BJP got the highest donation of Rs 2,244 crore in 2023-24, while former Telangana CM Chandrashekhar Rao’s party BRS was at second place with a donation of Rs 580 crore, while Congress was at third place with a donation of Rs 289 crore.

The organizations that donated the most to Prudent in 2022-23 include Megha Engineering and Infra Limited, Serum Institute, Arcelor Mittal Group and Bharti Airtel. The accounts of donations given by BJP and Congress do not include electoral bonds. As per the rules, political parties have to declare these details only in their annual audit report, not in the contribution report.

In February 2024, the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bond scheme. Since then, the biggest source of funds for political parties has been direct money or money received through electoral trusts.

Regional parties received this much donation

However, some regional parties have voluntarily declared their receipts through electoral bonds in their contribution reports for 2023-24. These include BRS, which received Rs 495.5 crore in bonds; DMK received Rs 60 crore and YSR Congress received Rs 121.5 crore through this now-defunct instrument. JMM received Rs 11.5 crore through bonds.

The BJP recorded a 212% increase in its contributions in 2023-24 over the previous year, though this is not unusual as it was the year before the general elections. In 2018-19, a year before the 2019 general election, the BJP received Rs 742 crore and the Congress Rs 146.8 crore. The BJP received Rs 850 crore through electoral trusts, of which Rs 723 crore came from Prudent, Rs 127 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and Rs 17.2 lakh from Engigarting Electoral Trust.

BJP also got money from Future Gaming
The Congress received over Rs 156 crore through trusts, though Prudent was the sole donor here. Prudent contributed Rs 85 crore and Rs 62.5 crore respectively to BRS and YSR Congress in 2023-24, which lost power this year. Andhra Pradesh’s current ruling party TDP received Rs 33 crore from Prudent. Interestingly, the BJP received a donation of Rs 3 crore in 2023-24 from Future Gaming and Hotel Services, a company owned by Santiago Martin, also known as India’s ‘lottery king’.

Future Gaming was the biggest donor through electoral bonds in which the Trinamool Congress benefited the most. Martin is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department for alleged money laundering.