Politics, funded by business: Electoral trusts biggest donors in 2016-18

During the two years, various sectors of business houses donated Rs 985.18 crore, constituting 93 per cent of the total contribution to political parties from known sources

Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year to the Election Commission every year. Parties provide the name, address, PAN number, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has contributed more than Rs 20,000 in their submissions.

This data analyses the donations from corporate houses to national parties in 2016-17 and 2017-18.  Political parties considered for the report are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress (INC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India Marxist  (CPM), and