Electoral Trust Funding: BJP won in the race of donations, got 82% of the total funds; Know how much came into Congress’s account?

News India Live, Digital Desk: The figures of donations received by political parties of India have come out, and this time too Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left all other parties behind. BJP has got the largest share in the funding through Electoral Trusts, while the main opposition party Congress is lagging far behind. Mathematics of funding: Who got how much share? According to the data of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Election Commission, the distribution of money received by Electoral Trusts from corporate houses and big donors was like this: BJP’s dominance: Total donations are approx. 82% share has gone to BJP alone. This figure shows the strong hold of the party and the trust of the corporate world. Congress’s position: Despite being the oldest party, Congress could get only 7% of the donations. Other regional parties: The remaining 11% is divided between other regional parties and smaller parties. What is Electoral Trust and how does it work? Electoral Trust is a system through which companies donate to political parties. It was created to maintain transparency so that it can be known which company gave how much money, although it does not have the controversy like Electoral Bonds. Why is BJP the choice of corporate world? Experts believe that being the ruling party and due to industrial policies, big corporate houses like to give more funds to BJP. Stability: Companies often support the party whose government is stable. Business Policies: Ease of doing business of the central government. And the impact of infrastructure schemes is also visible on funding. What does this mean for democracy? The opposition often alleges that such a huge disparity in funding destroys the ‘level playing field’ during election campaigns. The economically stronger party has greater power of publicity and resources.