Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Data on state-wise donations to national parties for the financial year 2024-25 puts the national capital at the top. A total of Rs 2,639.4 crore was donated to national parties from Delhi, followed by Rs 2,438.8 crore from Maharashtra and Rs 309.1 crore from Gujarat. Besides Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the top five states in terms of state-wise donations include West Bengal with donations to national parties standing at Rs 254.1 crore followed by Karnataka (Rs 220.4 crore). The other 28 states and UTs made donations amounting to Rs 778.8 crore.This analysis is part of a new report by the Association for Democratic Reforms that states that segregation of donations according to state was made based on the addresses provided by the parties in their donations report to the Election Commission of India. The ADR report released on Thursday focuses on donations above Rs 20,000, received by the national political parties during the financial year 2024-25, as per details submitted by the parties to EC. The national parties include BJP, Congress, BSP, CPI(M), AAP and National People’s Party (NPEP).The analysis shows that AAP received Rs 55,000 from three donations from the US. A little over Rs 7.6 cr (0.115% of total donations received by the national parties) could not be attributed to any State/ Union Territory due to incomplete/undeclared information provided by the parties.The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the national parties for FY 2024-25 was Rs 6,648.5 crore from 11,343 donations. The report shows that a total of Rs 6,074 crore from 5,522 donations were declared by BJP followed by Rs 517.3 crore from 2,501 donations were declared by Congress.“The donations declared by BJP are more than ten times the aggregate declared by INC, AAP, CPI(M) and NPEP for the same period,” the report said.Meanwhile, BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2024-25, as it has been declaring for the past 19 years.The ADR analysis shows that the total donations of the national parties during FY 2024-25 increased by Rs 4,104.2 crore, an increase of 161% from the previous financial year 2023-24. As many as 3244 donations to the national parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 6128.7 crores (92.18% of total donations) while 7900 individual donors donated Rs 505.6 crores (7.61% of total donations) to the parties during FY 2024-25.The report recommends that all donors who have donated a minimum of Rs 20,000 as a single or multiple donations should provide their PAN details. “Incomplete contributions reports having missing or incorrect PAN/mode of payment details must be returned to the parties by the ECI, to deter them from providing incomplete information,” it is recommended.
