BJP got 75% of total electoral bonds sold in 2019-20, made ₹2,555 crore: Reports

New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019-20 got over 75% of the total electoral bonds sold while the Congress managed just 9% of the total amount of ₹3,435 collected, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) data.

Electoral bonds are sold four times a year in January, April, July, and October. They allow political parties to accept money from donors whose identity is kept anonymous. The scheme was first introduced in 2018 and has since faced criticism over the lack of transparency.

The BJP continued to get the bulk of the money donated-- ₹2,555 crore-- via electoral bonds. This was up from ₹1,450 crore it received the previous year. The BJP’s cash flow, according to its audit report filed with the ECI, remains the highest among political parties at ₹3,501 crore, up from ₹1,904 in 2018-2019.

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress collected ₹100.46 crore, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ₹45 crore, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party ₹29.25 crore, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party ₹18 crore, and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal ₹2.5 crore.

The Congress received ₹383 crore in 2018-19 or 17% of the total share from the bonds. In 2019-20, it dipped to ₹318 crore.

As per the annual audit report of BJP submitted to the ECI, the party received ₹210 crore contribution in form of electoral bonds in 2017-18.

In a report released on Monday, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said this constituted nearly 95% of all the electoral bonds purchased in 2017-18. “For FY 2018-19, BJP had received ₹1,450.89 cr worth electoral bonds and INC (Indian National Congress) had received ₹383.26 cr worth electoral bonds,” the report said.

ADR said between 2017-18 and 2018-19, political parties received ₹2,760.20 crore from electoral bonds. “A whopping 60.17% or ₹1,660.89 cr of this was received by a single party which is the ruling political party...,” said the report. It added over 52% of the total income of national parties and 53.83% of the total income of regional Parties analysed by ADR for 2018-19 came from donations received through electoral bonds.

The BJP also got the highest donations from electoral trusts in 2019-20. Overall, BJP received ₹276.4 crore while Congress ₹58 crore.