An analysis of the electoral bond data submitted by State Bank of India has revealed that the Indian National Congress, despite getting only one quarter of the donations of its primary rival BJP, has done rather well for itself in terms of number of donors.
While the amount raised by the INC is only 25.8% of the amount raised by the BJP, the number of donors for the party is around 70%.
In other words, while the BJP raised Rs 5,674 crore from bonds sold since April 12, 2019, the Congress managed just a quarter of that – Rs 1,461 crore.
However, in terms of number of donors, the Congress was not far behind – at 337 against BJP’s 482.
As a result, on average, a single donor paid just Rs 4.34 crore to the Congress, while an average BJP donor paid more than double that -- Rs 11.77 crore.
While the reason for the disparity is not clear, it could be that many companies wanted to continue to support the Congress, but were willing to part with only a smaller amount.
In terms of the average donation size, Congress was behind several other parties, including regional outfits.
In other words, despite coming in at No.2 in terms of number of donors, Congress was near the bottom when it came to average donation size.
In terms of donation size, not only was the party below the BJP, it was also beaten by others like Biju Janata Dal (Rs 17.63 cr), Trinamool Congress (Rs 7.34 cr), TDP (6.62 cr), YSR Congress (6.45 cr) and BRS (Rs 5.22 cr).
The DMK’s situation was slightly different from those of the other parties as it got Rs 503 crore out of its total of Rs 632 cr from just one donor – the lottery king Santiago Martin. Excluding him, DMK had just 12 donors during the five year period, who contributed an average of Rs 10.75 crore each, or Rs 129 crore in all.
The only major parties that have done worse than the Congress in terms of ‘ticket size’ of donations are Aam Aadmi Party and Nationalist Congress Party. Against Congress’ Rs 4.34 cr, NCP got just Rs 2.19 crore from its donors on average, while AAP did even worse at just Rs 1.23 crore.
The broad trend seemed to be that parties in power – particularly at the Centre and in the bigger states – are attracting the big bucks, while those in opposition are managing to attract donors, but they are cutting much smaller cheques.
On a positive note, the Congress can take hope from the fact that despite being out of power for more than a term, the party still managed to attract nearly 70% as many donors as the BJP, even if the total amount is not comparable.