National News

Did A Regional Party Like The DMK Get More Donations Through Electoral Bonds Than A National Party Like The BJP?

March 15, 2024
The Commune

The electoral bonds have created a lot of buzz in social media for the past couple of days. News channels, web portals, alleged fact-checkers, and political party IT wing handles alike are posting that it is the Bharatiya Janata Party that received maximum donations from donors. 

Before we delve deeper into this, it is important to understand that political parties have historically received donations in various forms from companies and individuals. These donations used to be done as cash in briefcases and these would most often go unaccounted. The Tatas set an example by sending a cheque to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2013. This was rejected by Mamata then. 

The data uploaded by the Election Commission on its website is segmented into two sections: the initial portion, spanning 337 pages, contains details about the entities acquiring electoral bonds, including purchase dates. The subsequent section, spanning 426 pages, provides information about political parties, their associated dates, and the respective bond amounts. However, it is important to note that the data does not explicitly indicate which entities purchased bonds for specific political parties.

In the six financial years since its inception in 2018, electoral bonds have supplanted conventional funding channels for at least three political entities — TMC, DMK, and BJD — which now exclusively rely on this method for all donations exceeding ₹20,000.

Of all donations facilitated by electoral bonds, over half, approximately ₹6,500 crore, has been directed to the BJP. Notably, electoral bonds began to significantly dominate funding sources and entirely eclipse others for the ruling regional parties TMC, BJD, and DMK in the fiscal year 2022-23.

The DMK, currently ruling in Tamil Nadu, initially received no funding through bonds in the first two years. However, since then, the proportion of bonds in its total contributions (above ₹20,000) has surged to nearly 100%. Starting at 94.18% in 2019-2020, when it garnered ₹45 crore through this avenue, the share of bonds in the DMK’s donations dipped to 70.17% in 2020-21 before rebounding to 99.3% in 2021-22 and 99.26% in 2022-23. It received ₹306 crore and ₹185 crore in the last two financial years via bonds.

In the election year of 2019-20, BRS received 99.54% of its donations in Electoral Bonds (EBs), which dropped to zero in 2020-21, then surged to 79% and 77% in 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively. The YSRCP received 99.99% of its donations in the form of EBs in 2020-21.

The BJP leads as the top recipient, securing over ₹6,061 crore through electoral bonds, while the TMC received ₹1,610 crore. The Congress received ₹1,422 crore through this funding mechanism.

Next in line is the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with a total of ₹1,215 crore received via electoral bonds. The Biju Janta Dal (BJD) obtained funding of ₹776 crore through this channel.

There are several factors one must consider. The BJP currently holds power in 12 out of India’s 28 states and is part of the ruling coalition in four additional states. That makes it a part of the ruling government in 16 states (for convenience’s sake). In contrast, the Congress party now rules over only three states: Telangana, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh.

The TMC, DMK, BJP, and TRS (BRS) rule in just one state each. 

So is the comparison valid, is it right to say that the BJP gained more from electoral bonds considering that they are the largest party in the country with 12 states where they are in power and 4 where they are in a coalition? 

If we compare on a per MP basis, the results are shockingly different. 

 

Here is a comparison of a regional party getting more than a national party.

 

A netizen Anand explains how people think it is a scam without understanding what electoral bonds are and forgetting history. 

It is noteworthy that the DMK received 3 times more money through Electoral Bonds than the BJP compared to the Ratio of States ruled. Even though BJP is ruling 166+ states, they only received ₹400 crore (PS). While the DMK received an astounding 1300 crore.

Here is an example where the DMK received more donations than the BJP in just 6 months.

In 2020, the DMK received more donations than the BJP. 

This post shows a comparison of donations through Electoral Bond as % of their total donation.

This “scam” is similar to the “Rafale scam” and is a plain narrative setting by opposition parties. It is important that people, the general public understand that making such donations legal and reducing black money in the country. 

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