Political parties received Rs 379 cr in donations from corporate houses in 8 years

Corporate houses and businessmen have donated Rs 379 crore to political parties in eight years, a report released on Wednesday said.

Corporate houses and businessmen have donated Rs 379 crore to political parties in eight years, a report released on Wednesday said.

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Out of Rs 435 crore collected by national parties between 2004-05 and 2011-12, Rs 379 crore, which is 87% of total donations, was contributed by corporate and business houses, said the report released by The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The ADR is a civil society group vying for transparency in Indian politics.

The report said the BJP received the maximum donation of Rs 192.47 crore from 1,334 corporate houses during the period.

The Congress was the next biggest recipient of the corporate largesse. It received a total of Rs 172.25 crore from 418 corporate donors. “The maximum number of donations was made by the manufacturing sector (595 donors contributing Rs.99.71 crore), followed by 340 donors from the real estate sector (Rs. 24.10 crore),” the report said.

The least number of donations was made by hospitals, shipping, transport and communication sectors.

The report added that the General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group was the top corporate donor to the INC and the BJP. The group contributed Rs 36.4 crore to INC, followed by a donation of Rs 26.57 crore to the BJP.

“The CPI received a total of Rs 11 lakh from 13 corporate donors while CPI-M received a total of Rs 1.78 crore from 108 business houses," the report said.