Electoral bonds generated donations worth over ₹9,188 crore in last 6 years; BJP emerges as biggest beneficiary

livemint.com:

₹9,188 crore for all political parties, put together between 2016-22. Among all the parties, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) earned a total of 57 per cent of the donations generated through electoral bonds, according to data released by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Between 2016-17 and 2021-22, the last year for which the data is available, seven national parties and 24 regional parties received a total donation of ₹9,188.35 crore through electoral bonds.

Emerging as the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds donations, the BJP received ₹5,272 crore and the Congress received ₹952 crore, while the rest went to other parties. Meanwhile, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties. According to the data revealed by the non-profit organisation, that keeps a check on parties contesting elections, there has been a significant rise in electoral bond donations.

Whereas, corporate donations showed nominal growth over the past six years. National parties witnessed a 743 per cent increase between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22. Corporate donations to national parties increased by only 48 per cent during the same period, it said.

Not just national parties, state parties also received a substantial proportion of their donations via electoral bonds. Seven national parties and 24 state parties received a donation worth around ₹16,437 crore between 016-17 and 2021-22. Out of this, ₹9,188.35 crore -- around 56 per cent -- were received through electoral bonds.