New Delhi: The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report on Sunday that the Bharatiya Janata Party was the largest recipient of corporate donations from Gujarat between 2017 and 2021. This is 16 times more donations than Congress. According to the report, four political parties—BJP, Congress, AAP and SKM—have received corporate donations of Rs 174.06 crore from 1,571 donors in Gujarat between financial years 2016-17 and 2020-21.
During this five-year period, the BJP was the largest recipient of corporate donations amounting to Rs 163.54 crore from 1,519 donors. On the other hand, the Congress got only Rs 10.46 crore during this period. In the form of donations, political parties have received electoral bonds worth Rs 343 crore, while there is corporate donation of Rs 174 crore. The party was also the biggest recipient of corporate donations in the financial year 2018-19, worth Rs 46.22 crore, almost 18 times more than the Congress’s Rs 2.61 crore.
The Aam Aadmi Party, the new entrant in Gujarat politics, received a total of Rs 3.2 lakh in corporate donations during a period of five years. No donations have been received between 2017-2020. Of the total corporate donations of Rs 4,014.58 crore received by political parties over a five-year period, 4.34 per cent or Rs 174.06 crore came from Gujarat.
Talking about the political parties across the country, all the parties have received donations of more than 16 thousand crores in total. Out of which 80 percent donation i.e. Rs 12842 crore has been received by only eight national parties. While regional parties have received more than 3 thousand crore donations.
The ADR report also said that the BJP, which is contesting the first phase of elections on all 89 seats, has 79 candidates or 89 per cent of its candidates whose assets are more than Rs 1 crore.
A PTI report quoting ADR said that Ramesh Tilala, who is contesting as a BJP candidate from Rajkot South assembly constituency, is the richest candidate with total declared assets of Rs 175 crore.
Let us tell you that the assembly elections for 182 seats in Gujarat are going to be held in two phases. Voting for the first phase will be held on December 1, while the second phase will be held on December 5. The results are going to be announced on December 8.
