Rich Political Parties Serving Poor with Donations from Unknown
ACCORDING to analysis prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms,
- The top 5 political parties with the highest total income between FY 2004-05 and FY 2010-11 (last 7 years) are: INC: Rs 2008 Cr followed by BJP: Rs 994 Cr, BSP: Rs 484 Cr, CPM: Rs 417 Cr and SP: Rs 279 Cr.
- Donations and Voluntary Contributions seem to be one of the major sources of income for most of the political parties.
- However, donations from named contributors (i.e. contributors who made donations above Rs 20,000 which is to be mandatorily declared) form a very small percentage of total Income of political parties. Of the National Parties for FY 2009-2010 and FY 2010-2011, BJP's donations from named donors amount to 22.76% of the total income. INC has shown a mere 11.89% of their income from contributions, followed by NCP with 4.64% and CPM, 1.29%
- Bahujan Samaj Party has declared that it has not received any donations above Rs 20,000 in FY 2009-2010 and FY 2010-2011 even though its total income for the two years is Rs 172.67 Cr.
- CPI has shown 57.02% of total Income from donations above Rs 20,000
- Out of the Regional Parties analyzed for FY 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has 99.98% of its income coming from donations followed by Janata Dal (United) with 95.96% and Lok Janshakti Party with 89.88%.
- Rashtriya Janata Dal (56.13%) and Telugu Desham Party (37%) derive maximum income from donations above Rs 20,000.
- BJP had the maximum number of donors donating above Rs 20000 for FY 2009-2010 (279) and FY 2010-2011 (502) while for INC it was 226 in 2009-2010 and 417 in 2010-2011.
Donations from Corporates/Companies
- Several companies/corporates have donated to the Political Parties between the FYs 2003-04 and 2010-11 a few of which are Torrent Power Ltd, Asianet TV Holding Pvt.Ltd., Sterlite Industries, ITC Ltd, Videocon Industries Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Infrastructure Development & Consultant (I) (P) Ltd, Russel Credit Ltd
- The top ten companies which made the maximum contributions are the Torrent Power Ltd donating Rs 14.15 Cr to INC during the FYs 2003-04, 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2010-11 and Rs 13.00 Cr to BJP during the FYs 2007-08 to 2010-11.
- Asianet V Holding Pvt. Ltd donating Rs 10.00 Cr to BJP during the FY 2009-10 and Rs 2.50 Cr to INC during the FY 2009-10.
- Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of the Vedanta Group, donated Rs 6.00 Cr to INC during FY 2004-05 and FY 2009-10 while The Madras Aluminium Co Ltd, also a subsidiary of the Vedanta Group had contributed Rs 3.50 Cr to BJP.
- Southern Engineering Works (SEW) Constructions, SEW Infrastructure and Videocon Industries are other major donors who contributed to INC, BJP, CPI and NCP.ITC is also a major donor making contributions to SP (Rs 78 lacs), AIADMK (Rs 55 Lacs) and to RJD (Rs 33 lacs) between FY 2003-04 and FY 2010-11
These voluntary donations are like the voluntary confessions made before (by!) Customs officers.