Donations to national parties have reduced by 84% in 2015-16 compared with 2014-15, when the Lok Sabha elections were held, The Association of Democratic Reforms said in a new report. The decline amounts to Rs 528.67 crore. Of the total donations, those above Rs 20,000 amounted to Rs 102.02 crore, the report claimed, and nearly three quarters of this went to the Bharatiya Janata Party alone – Rs 76.85 crore.

The association said, “The donations declared by the BJP are more than three times the aggregate declared by the Indian National Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and All India Trinamool Congress for the same period.”

The data showed that the largest donors were the corporate and business sectors, with contributions amounting to 75.75% or Rs 77.28 crore. The BJP was the biggest beneficiary of these donations with Rs 67.99 crore, followed by Rs 8.83 crore for the Congress. Individual donations formed 22.95% of the donations with Rs 23.41 crore.

The report said donations to the BJP reduced by 82% from Rs 437.35 crore during 2014-15 to Rs 76.85 crore in 2015-16. Cash donations accounted for Rs 1.45 crore of the total Rs 102.02 crore in 2015-16, which the Congress being the receipient with the largest donations of Rs 1.17 crore from 10 states/Union Territories, followed by the Communist Party of India with Rs 22.22 lakh from 12 states/Union Territories.

The Association of Democratic Reforms is a non-profit election monitor which studies donation figures submitted by political parties to the Election Commission.