BJP gets lion's share from Bharti-led electoral trust

Bharti Airtel and DLF were the largest contributors to Satya Electoral Trust, formed under the new regime for such entities since early 2013.

The concept was introduced to bring more transparency into political funding. Companies and other entities were allowed to register non-profit trusts, enabling them to differentiate these from other group firms with business interests. Satya was floated by the Bharti group of companies. It had several North India-based business groups as donors, such as the KK Birla group, Jubilant, Hero Motors, IndiGo and Shriram.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been the largest beneficiary of donations from this trust.

It raised Rs 85.4 crore and donated most of these in 2013-14, according to details put out by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-government body which tracks these developments.

"As Satya Electoral Trust was set up by Bharti Enterprises, the parent company donated the largest amount of Rs 36 crore to be disbursed to political parties and formed 42 per cent of total donations," ADR said. Akhil Gupta, vice-chairman of Bharti Enterprises and executive chairman of Bharti Infratel, was the only individual to contribute to political parties through Satya. He donated Rs 2 crore.

Donations from other groups of companies: Jubilant Bhartia Group, Rs 6.38 crore (7.47 per cent); CK Birla Group, Rs 4 crore (4.69 per cent); Interglobe Eenterprises, Rs 4 crore (4.69 per cent) and KK Birla Group, Rs 2 crore (2.34 per cent).

The BJP, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party were the three national ones to which Satya made contributions. The BJP got Rs 41.37 crore (48.4 per cent of all donations to the trust), followed by the Congress with Rs 36.5 crore (42.7 per cent. The Akali Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal and National Conference were the three regional parties to which the trust made donations. The Akalis got Rs 2 crore and the RJD got Rs 1 crore.

The central government amended the Income Tax Rules, 1962, in January 2013 to insert Rule 17CA, which lists the functions of electoral trusts approved by the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes. The eligibility and other rules were also notified. All such trusts are to issue an annual report about the details of contributions received and donations given. Seven such trusts were formed after January 2013 but Satya has been the only one to file a complete annual report to the Election Commission of India. Three trusts had said they got no donations at all in FY14.