The Association for Democratic Reforms, in the context of the upcoming assembly elections in the state of Gujarat in two phases between 1st – 5th December 2022, analysed the total income and donations received by the various recognised political parties during FY 2016–17 to FY 2020–21.
Additionally, the funds received by these political parties from donors in Gujarat via electoral trusts, electoral bonds, and corporate houses in the state have also been analysed. The objective of the report was to understand what proportion of political funding to major political parties came from Gujarat and its relevance for the upcoming polls. While a comparison can be made for national parties’ data over the past five years, the same cannot be done for regional parties given the non-availability of reports of the same parties each year.
The total income declared by national and regional political parties whose annual reports were available on the Election Commission’s website is Rs 16,071.60 crore. 79.91%, or Rs 12,842.28 crore, of the total income in the five years was declared by eight national parties, while the remaining Rs 3229.32 crore (20.09%) was declared by regional parties. Maximum funds were received by national parties in FY 2019-20 (the year of Lok Sabha elections) amounting to Rs 4760.09 crore while regional parties received the highest income of Rs 1089.422 crore in FY 2018-19.
The total donations declared by national and regional political parties in their annual audit reports available on the Election Commission’s website is Rs 12,745.61 crore. 82.15%, or Rs 10,471.04 crore, of the total donations in the five years were declared by eight national parties, while the remaining Rs 2274.57 crore (17.85%) was declared by regional parties. Maximum donations were received by National Parties in FY 2019-20 (the year of Lok Sabha elections) amounting to Rs 4186.992 crore while Regional Parties received the highest contribution of Rs 916.88 crore in FY 2018-19.
The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by national and regional political parties in their contribution reports available on the Election Commission’s website are Rs 4353.85 crore. 83.11%, or Rs 3618.483 crore, of the total donations above Rs 20,000 in the five years were declared by national parties, while the remaining Rs 735.367 crore (16.89%) was declared by regional parties. Maximum donations were received by National Parties in FY 2019-20 (the year of Lok Sabha elections) amounting to Rs 1013.805 crore while Regional Parties received the highest contribution of Rs 233.457 crore in FY 2019-20.
Between March 2018 and October 2022, a total of 595 bonds worth Rs 343 crore were purchased from the Gandhinagar Main branch of the State Bank of India (SBI). This data is based on the responses received from SBI to RTI applications filed by ADR. Out of a total of 22 phases, electoral bonds were purchased from the Gandhinagar branch in thirteen phases. However, no electoral bonds were encashed from Gandhinagar in any of the phases. The highest amount of electoral bonds (137 in number) worth Rs 87.50 crore were purchased from Gandhinagar during the 9th phase, followed by 86 electoral bonds worth Rs 81.50 crore purchased during the 22nd phase (1-10 October 2022).
Four political parties received corporate donations from Gujarat between FY 2016–17 and 2020-21 namely BJP, INC, AAP, and SKM. These political parties received total corporate donations worth Rs 174.06 crore from 1571 donations from Gujarat. During the five-year period, maximum corporate donations worth Rs 163.544 crore were declared by BJP from 1519 donors. The BJP received the most donations in the fiscal year 2018–19, totaling Rs 46.222 crore from 524 donors. Of the total corporate donations (Rs 4014.58 crore) received by political parties in the five-year period, 4.34%, or Rs 174.06 crore, came from Gujarat, based on the data analysed from the contribution reports submitted by the political parties to the ECI. In the five-year period analysed, political parties received a total of Rs 74.27 crore from Prudent Electoral Trust that received contributions from companies based in Gujarat. Between FY 2016–17 and FY 2020–21, six Gujarat-based companies made donations to political parties via the Prudent Electoral Trust: Torrent Power Limited, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Torrent Pharma Limited, Cadila Healthcare Limited, Essar Bulk Terminal Paradip Limited, and Act Infraport Ltd. The highest contributions, amounting to Rs 30.50 crore, were received from Torrent Power Limited and were spread over six donations between FY 2016–17 and FY 2020–21. Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. made five donations worth Rs 20.50 crore via the Prudent Electoral Trust to political parties during the five-year period.