Yashoda Hospitals 'donated' Rs 10 cr to BJP months after Dec 2020 IT raids

Hyderabad: The city-based Yashoda Hospitals donated Rs. 10 crores to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the financial year 2021-2022, according to the report submitted by the party to the Election Commission of India. The BJP, in total (individual and corporate contributions minus electoral bonds), received a whopping Rs. 960 crores donation during the same year.

The BJP received Rs. 614,52,64990 (Rs. 614.52 crores) through donations alone during 2021-2022. This is minus the funds received through electoral trusts and electoral bonds. This is the ninth year in a row that the BJP has received the highest donations from individuals and corporates in the country. The total receipts will be much higher if the number of donations below Rs. 20,000 is taken into consideration.

The timing of the donation is significant since it comes a year after the Yashoda Group was raided by Income Tax sleuths. On 23 December 2020, the IT officials carried out searches at properties owned by Yashoda Healthcare Services Private Limited.

The 33-year-old Yashoda Group was founded by Dr. G. Surendar Rao who later teamed up with his brothers G. Devender Rao and G. Ravender Rao to expand operations and start Yashoda Hospitals.

The second-biggest donor to the BJP from Hyderabad for the same year is Visaka Industries Ltd.—the group is run by former MP Vivek Venkataswamy Gadam who is now with the BJP—followed by Satyam Ispat Industries (Rs. 50 lakhs) and Sagar Cements (Rs. 25 lakhs).

Hyderabad gives in abundance.

In 2019-20, Hyderabad-based ILABS Technologies, represented by Srinivasaraju Chintalapati and Megha Engineering (MEIL), were the biggest donors for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Both donated Rs. 5 crores each, the highest contributed from Hyderabad.

Andhra Pradesh donated scantily

ADR report: BJP gets majority of funds routed via Electoral Trust

The BJP's biggest financial strength comes from Electoral Trusts. For the Financial year 2021-22, over 89 corporates/business houses contributed Rs. 475.8021 crores to Electoral Trusts. Secondly, 40 individuals contributed to Electoral Trusts in the same year. Among the 21 trusts, Prudent Electoral Trust received the highest. It donated Rs. 336.50 crores to the BJP in contrast to Rs. 209 crores contributed in the financial year 2020-21. Meanwhile, AB General Electoral Trust donated Rs. 10 crores to BJP in 2021-22.

1. Small Donations Electoral Trust donated Rs 1.9351 cr to INC.

2. Prudent Electoral Trust donated to nine political parties, including major parties like BJP, TRS, SP, AAP, INC, YSR Congress, SAD, Punjab Lok Congress Party, and Goa Forward Party.

3. BJP received Rs. 351.50 crores or 72.17% of the total donations received by all political parties from Electoral Trusts.

4. TRS received Rs. 40 crores or 8.21% of the total donations received by all parties from all six Electoral Trusts.

5. Other eight political parties—SP, AAP, YSR Congress, INC, SAD, Punjab Lok Congress Party, Goa Forward Party, and DMK—received a total of Rs. 95.56 crores collectively.

In 2013, the Central government introduced the scheme for Electoral Trusts under which corporations could set up trusts for collecting and donating money to parties. The ostensible intention behind the scheme was that this would prevent direct transactions between political parties and corporates. This was of no use because it was well-known which corporate had set up which trust.

The last and latest innovation in the form of electoral bonds introduced in 2017 has made the process of political funding completely opaque. This is not conducive to a healthy democracy and is likely to result in corporates controlling the actions of the government.

Data on how much political parties received via electoral bonds is awaited.