Rs 189 cr received by 26 regional parties in donations in 2021-22: ADR

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Twenty-six regional parties received Rs 189 crore in donations in 2021-22 with 85 per cent of it going to just five of them, including JDU and SP, the ADR said on Monday. No donations were declared by AIADMK, BJD, NDPP, SDF, AIFB, PMK, and JKNC for Financial Year 2021-22, according to a new report released by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a poll reform advocacy group. The report focuses on donations declared by regional political parties during the Financial Year 2021-22, as submitted by them to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The total amount of donations declared by 26 regional parties analysed, including both above and below Rs 20,000, was Rs 189.801 crore, from 5,100 donations, ADR said. The report said 85.46 per cent or Rs 162.21 crore of the total donations received by regional parties was received by five regional parties – TRS, AAP, JDU, SP, and YSR-Congress. TRS, AAP, SP, and YSR-Congress declared an increase in their donations while JDU declared a decrease in the donations in comparison with FY 2020-21. “With regard to the total amount of donations, TRS leads with Rs 40.90 crore from 14 donations followed by AAP which has declared receiving Rs 38.24 crore from 2,619 donations,” the ADR said.

JDU received Rs 33.26 crore – the third highest sum received by all regional parties. SP and YSR-Congress declared receiving Rs 29.80 crore and Rs 20 crore respectively, the ADR said. Between FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22, donations to YSR-Congress increased by 8,00,300 per cent, followed by SP, for which it was 5,807 per cent, RLD – 4,090 per cent, and MGP that saw an increase of 3,583 per cent. The ADR said four parties – RLTP, JMM, PDF, and DMDK – did not receive any donations during FY 2020-21, but declared receiving donations for FY 2021-22.

For 2021-22, RLTP reported getting Rs 3 lakh, JMM Rs 1 lakh, PDF Rs 80,000, and DMDK Rs 50,000. “The AIADMK, SDF, AIFB, PMK and AIUDF declared the highest decrease in the percentage of donations received between FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, of 100 per cent, 100 per cent, 100 per cent, 100 per cent and 95 per cent respectively,” the report said. BJD, NDPP, and JKNC reported getting no donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22, the ADR said. Out of Rs 189.801 crore declared received by the regional parties, Rs 7.40 lakh from 21 donations was received in cash during FY 2021-22.

This formed 0.039 per cent of the total donations to the parties, the ADR said. The maximum donations in cash were declared by IUML, which collected Rs 5.55 lakh in cash, followed by KC-M, PDF, PPA, and AAP which received Rs 1 lakh, Rs 80,000, Rs 5,000, and Rs 120, in that order.

Donors from Tamil Nadu made the highest donations in cash donating Rs 5.55 lakh. About 4.78 per cent or Rs 1.828 crore of the total donations above Rs 20,000 to AAP was received from abroad.

A total of Rs 2.7286 crore (1.44 per cent of total donations received by the regional parties in FY 2021-22), could not be attributed to any state or Union Territory due to incomplete or lack of information provided by the parties, the ADR said.