At 48%, BJP got lion’s share of donations via electoral bonds

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, February 15

The BJP got 48.4 per cent of all donations received through electoral bonds by 20 major political parties between 2017-18 and 2022-23, according to official data.

Of approximately Rs 13,558 crore received by the 20 parties through electoral bonds during the period under review, the BJP received Rs 6,566 crore — 48.4 per cent of the total donations via bonds. Electoral bonds were struck down as unconstitutional by a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday.

While the BJP received a whopping Rs 6,566 crore during the five-year period, the Congress in contrast received only Rs 1,122 crore as donation through electoral bonds. The Trinamool Congress was a close third as it received Rs 1,092 crore through bonds. The BJP received Rs 210 crore as donation through electoral bonds in 2017-18, the year in which these came into existence, after having being announced in the Union Budget for the same fiscal by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

This was a whopping 95 per cent share among all electoral bonds purchased during the 2017-18 fiscal by the 20 major parties. Incidentally, during that fiscal, apart from the Congress with Rs 5 crore and the JD(S) with Rs 6.03 crore, no other political party had received donations through bonds.

In 2022-23 too, the BJP led in terms of receiving maximum donations through electoral bonds, which stood at Rs 1,294 crore. The Trinamool Congress stood a distant second as it received Rs 325 crore as donations through bonds, with the DMK coming third with Rs 185 crore.

The Congress came in at the fourth position with Rs 171 crore, while the Biju Janata Dal was fifth with donations of Rs 152 crore received through bonds in 2022-23.