From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 27: The National People’s Party (NPP), the only recognised national party from the Northeast, received Rs 14.85 lakh as contributions to the party fund during 2023-24.
The amount is much less than the similarly placed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) while the BJP received Rs 2,604.74 crore during the same period.
Congress, the main opposition party, got Rs 281.38 crore in its kitty, according to contribution reports put on the public domain by the Election Commission (EC). The donations listed in the reports were received till March 31, 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
During 2023-24, the BJP received more than Rs 723 crore in donations from the Prudent Electoral Trust, about Rs 127 crore from the Triumph Electoral Trust, and over Rs 17 lakh from the Einzigartig Electoral Trust. Congress got over Rs 150 crore from the Prudent Electoral Trust, the sole trust donor to the party.
Interestingly, Congress received multiple donations of Rs 1.38 lakh from top leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, and Digvijaya Singh. Multiple donations were made to Congress under the heading “Happy birthday to our leader—JKB”.
The contributions declared by the BJP and Congress do not include the donations received through electoral bonds which need to be declared in the party’s annual audit reports and not the contribution statements.
The BJP declared donations worth more than Rs 740 crore ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while Congress declared over Rs 146 crore during 2018-19.
The AAP, a recognised national party, received contributions of more than Rs 11.06 crore during the fiscal. Another recognised national party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, received donations worth more than Rs 7.64 crore.
The BJP was also a major beneficiary of electoral bonds purchased by big corporate groups such as 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 the ‘Lottery King’ of India.