Political parties and the donors
When statements such as steal and don’t loot are being made in our country, then this bit of data regarding corporate donations to political parties in the past three years would be interesting to take note of.
The Association for Democratic Reforms which has compiled this information based on the submissions given to the Election Commission of India show that it is the Congress party with Rs 1662 crore which leads the pack with corporate donations. The BSP comes a close second with Rs 1226 crore, the BJP Rs 852 crore and ironically the CPM has also got donations to the tune of Rs 335 crore. This calculation has been made on the basis of the donations between the years 2007-08 and 2011-12. In this list of beneficiaries is also the Samajwadi party with Rs 200 crore and the NCP with 140 crore.
In the year 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 to the tune of Rs 2 crore. The Torrrent Power Limited also made a donation of Rs 2 crore to the Congress party the same year.
In the year 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 the year 2009 the figures shot up even further. It was the General Electoral trust which made a big donation to the BJP to the tune of Rs 16.60 crore while it donated Rs 13.95 crore to the Congress the same year. The next highest donor that year was Asianet Holding with Rs 10 crore towards the BJP.
The data indicates that it was only the BJP which was most forthcoming about making public these donations. 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 20000 then 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. Vasanth Chemicals 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
Saimagdha Real- Rs 5 lakh
2008-09-
Congress-
Bharti Electoral Trust- Rs 10 crore
Torrent Power Ltd- Rs 2.5 crore
Crompton Greaves Ltd- Rs 1.5 crore
BJP-
Bharti Electoral Trust- Rs 3 crore
M/s Torrent Power Ltd- Rs 2.5 crore
Bharti Electoral Trust- Rs- Rs 2 crore
CPI(M)-
Sew Infrastructure Ltd- Rs 25 lakh
SEW- Rs 25 lakh
GKC Projects- Rs 3 lakh.
2009-2010
Congress-
General Electoral Trust- Rs 13.95 crore
Electoral Trust- Rs 5.64 crore
Infrastructure Development & Consultant- Rs 5.50 crore
BJP-
General Electoral Trust- Rs 16.60 crore
Asianet Holding- Rs 10 crore
Torrent Power Limited- Rs 5.50
CPI(M)
Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd- Rs 10 lakh
Hetero Drugs- Rs 6 lakh
AMR Construction Ltd- Rs 2 lakh
