Torrent Power, the second biggest donor to BJP and Congress

Ahmedabad, 8 January 2014

Foreign funded and Ahmdabad registered organization Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has shared the details of donations to political parties by Corporates and business houses between financial year 204-05 and 201-12. According to this, Gujarat headquartered Torrent Power Ltd was second highest donor to Congress and BJP.

-Congress: General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated the maximum amount (Rs 36.41 crores) followed byTorrent Power Ltd. (Rs 11.85 crores) and Bharti Electoral Trust of Bharti Group (Rs 11 crores)

-BJP: General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated the maximum amount (Rs 26.57 crores) followed byTorrent Power Ltd. (Rs 13 crores) and Asianet V Holding Pvt Ltd (Rs 10 crores)

-NCP: Ambuja cement donated the maximum (Rs 1 crore) followed by Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. (Rs 1 crore)and Infina Finance Pvt. Ltd. (Rs 1 crore)

-CPI and CPM: CPI received a total of Rs 11 lakhs from13 corporate donors while CPM received a total of Rs 1.78 crores from 108 corporate/ business houses

According to the details shared, Corporates and business houses made 87% of the total donations to national parties during this period. Out of Rs 435.87 crores collected by national parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12, Rs 378.89 crores was donated by corporates and business houses. INC received maximum contributions from trusts & group of companies (Rs 70.28 crores) while BJP received maximum donation from manufacturing sector (Rs 58.18 crores) and power & oil (Rs 17.06 crores). Maximum donations from mining, construction, export/ import sector was received by INC (Rs 23.07 crores) while maximum donations from the real estate sector was received by BJP (Rs 17.01 crores).

Note:

These figures of funding are as per the official records. The real picture could be different entirely.