NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received donations to the tune of Rs 44.71 crore in the last two financial years but shockingly, the identity of 111 donors, who together contributed Rs 91.47 lakh, is not available in the party’s list of donors. The mysterious donors gave over Rs 20,000 each to the party. Similarly, neither the addresses nor PAN card details of 137 people, who donated Rs 3.02 crore, were available.
As per an analysis of the donations — revealed by AAP for the years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 — conducted by election watchdog, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), almost 25 per cent of the total donations for AAP came from outside India.
ADR has done an analysis of the total donations declared to the Election Commission by AAP. Maharashtra and Delhi were the biggest donors for AAP in the last two years. Donations from Maharashtra constituted 23.28 per cent of total donations while Delhi donors gave AAP 20.42 per cent of total donations. “Donations from Delhi and Maharashtra to AAP registered a dramatic increase of 1,460 per cent and 476 per cent respectively, from 2013-14 to 2014-2015,” an ADR statement said.
As per ADR, the AAP was the only state-recognised party in Delhi to see an increase of 275 per cent in donations from 2013-14 to 2014-15, much higher than national parties’ total increase of 151 per cent.
The party received a total of Rs 9.42 crore donations above Rs 20,000 each during 2013-14 and Rs 35.28 crore during 2014-15. The party, in its donations report for 2014-15, has also declared donations below Rs 20,000. A total of Rs 2.68 crore was collected through 3,326 donations during 2014-15, which ranged from Rs 1 to Rs 20,000. “The party has not made similar declarations during 2013-14,” the ADR said.
The ADR pointed out that AAP received the maximum number of donations for amounts between Rs 1001 and Rs 50,000. These form 75 per cent — 5,647 donations — of the total number of donations received during 2013-14 and 2014-15.
A total 26 donors donated amounts between Rs 1 and Rs 50 while 92 donors donated amounts between Rs 51 and Rs 500. The total number of donations increased from 1,571 during 2013-14 to 5,951 during 2014-15 marking an increase of 279 per cent — 4,380 donations.
A total 57 per cent — Rs 25.56 crore — of the total amount of donations came from contributions above Rs 1,00,001. Strangely, AAP received a total of Rs 1.147 crore from unnamed donors.
Among the top 10 donors were Bajaj Electoral Trust which donated Rs 3 crore in 2014-15, two donors by the name of Priya Bansal — one donated Rs 36 lakh but did not provide address or PAN details or complete mode of contribution; the other Priya Bansal provided address and PAN details in all the seven donations she had made for a total of Rs 34 lakh.