At 1,662 cr, Cong leads with corporate donations

When a senior minister in Uttar Pradesh makes a statement such as 'steal a little, but don't loot', then this bit of data regarding corporate donations to political parties in the past three years would be interesting to take note of. Vicky Nanjappa reports.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-political group aiming at governmental and electoral reforms which has compiled this information based on submissions given to the Election Commission of India, show that the Congress, with Rs 1,662 crore, leads the pack with corporate donations.

The Bahujan Samaj Party comes a close second with Rs 1,226 crore, the Bharatiya Janata Party Rs 852 crore, and ironically the Communist Party of India-Marxist has also got donations to the tune of Rs 335 crore.

This calculation has been made on the basis of the donations between 2007-08 and 2011-12. The Samajwadi party with Rs 200 crore and the Nationalist Congress Party with 140 crore are also in the list of beneficiaries.

In 2007, the highest donation was given to the BJP by Videocon Industries which was to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore. The same company also made a donation to the Congress of about Rs 2 crore. The Torrrent Power Limited also made a donation of Rs 2 crore to the Congress the same year.

In 2008, the biggest donor was the Bharti Electoral Trust which made a donation of Rs 10 crore towards the Congress. The same company also made two donations of Rs 3 crore and 2 crore to the BJP during the same year.

In 2009, the figures shot up even further. The General Electoral trust made a big donation of Rs 16.60 crore to the BJP, while it donated Rs 13.95 crore to the Congress the same year. The next highest donor that year was Asianet Holdings with Rs 10 crore towards the BJP.

The data indicates that only the BJP was most forthcoming about making these donations public. They revealed the identity of the donors who contributed to nearly 20 per cent of their source of funds. The Congress revealed the identity of just 4 to 6 per cent of the source of funds while the CPM made public just 1 per cent in this category.

The BSP on the other hand did not reveal the sources as it claimed that if donations do not exceed Rs 20,000, so there is no need of making the source public.

The data available shows that two companies -- Vasanth Chemicals and Hetero drugs -- have been common donors for both the BJP, Congress and the CPM. The company has made a donation of Rs 1 lakh each to the BJP and the CPM. Hetero drugs on the other hand has contributed Rs 50 lakh to the Congress and Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh to the CPI-M.

List of donors 2007-08

Congress

Torrent Power Limited: Rs 2 crore

Videocon Industries Ltd: Rs 2 crore

Chowgule Charitable Trust: Rs 72.5 lakh

BJP

General Electoral Trust:: Rs 5 crore

Videocon Industries- Rs: 2.5 crore

Punj Lloyd: Rs 1 crore

CPI-M

Gayatri Projects Ltd: Rs 5 lakh

Sew Constructions: Rs 5 lakh