BJP got over Rs 2,600 cr donations in 2023-24, Cong Rs 281 cr: EC reports

New Delhi, PTI: The ruling BJP received contributions of over Rs 2,604.74 crore during 2023-24 while the opposition Congress got Rs 281.38 crore in its kitty, according to contribution reports of the two parties put in public domain by the Election Commission (EC). The donations listed in the reports were received till March 31, 2024 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had declared donations worth over Rs 740 crore ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the Congress had claimed to have received over Rs 146 crore in 2018-19. During 2023-24, while the BJP received over Rs 723 crore worth of donations from Prudent Electoral Trust, it also got over Rs 127 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust and over Rs 17 lakh from Einzigartig Electoral Trust.

The Congress got over Rs 150 crore from the Prudent Electoral Trust, which was the sole trust donor to the party. Interestingly, the Congress received multiple donations of Rs 1.38 lakh including those from top leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, K C Venugopal and Digvijaya Singh, among others. Multiple donations were made to the Congress under the heading “Happy Birthday to our leader– JKB”.

The contributions declared by the BJP and the Congress do not include the donations received through electoral bonds as these have to be declared in the party’s annual audit reports and not contribution statements. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is also a recognised national party, received contributions of over Rs 11.06 crore during the fiscal.

‘86% of candidates who contested LS polls, lost deposit’

As many as 86 per cent of the over 8,300 candidates who contested the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year lost their deposits. According to the statistical data issued by the Election Commission on Thursday, a total of 12,459 nominations were filed in 2024, compared to 11,692 in 2019. Out of the over 12,000 who filed nominations, 8,360 qualified as contesting candidates after rejection of nominations and withdrawals across the country.

The number of contesting candidates in 2019 Lok Sabha elections was 8,054. According to the data, 7,190 of the candidates lost their deposits, which comes to 86 per cent. Of the 7,190 who lost their deposit, 584 were from the six recognised parties, 68 from recognised state parties, 2,633 from registered, unrecognised political parties and 3,095 independent candidates. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 6923 candidates had lost deposit.

A total of 3921 independent candidates had contested but only seven were elected. The vote share in percentage terms polled by independent candidates was 2.79 per cent of the total valid votes. In Lok Sabha elections, candidates have to deposit Rs 25,000 as security money to contest. The amount is half for SC and ST category candidates. According to electoral law, the deposit willl be forfeited if the candidate is not elected and the number of valid votes polled by him or her does not exceed one-sixth of the total number of valid votes polled by all the candidates.