India’s political parties got Rs4,662 crore in donations in the past seven years, with Congress (Rs2,008 crore) and BJP (Rs994 crore) topping the list.
Leaders of the two parties said there was 'nothing illegal or unethical' in taking funds from their workers and other sources.
Two NGOs, Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, released the income of 23 top parties on Monday on the basis of income-tax returns and lists of donors from the Election Commission.
The Congress’ earnings were mostly through selling of coupons since 2004, while 14.42 per cent were donations from corporate groups and trusts controlled by top firms.
BJP got 81.47 per cent donations from corporate groups and trusts.Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said he could comment only after he went through the data, while BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain said his party got funds from workers through a “transparent system of collection”.
Among others, CPI(M) got Rs417 crore, BSP Rs484 crore, SP Rs278 crore, NCP Rs160 crore, AIADMK Rs59 crore, JD(U) Rs26 crore, Telugu Desam Rs53 crore, DMK Rs40 crore, Trinamul Rs9 crore, Shiv Sena Rs32 crore, and TRS and RLD Rs10 crore each.
The Sikkim Democratic Front got the least (Rs92 lakh).