YSRCP’s electoral funding increases almost tenfold; receives Rs 27 crore from Prudent

Hyderabad: India’s richest electoral trust Prudent has donated Rs 27 crore to YSRC Party in 2018-2019 —the highest received from a single entity. The party’s account statement submitted to the Election Commission on October 14 showed that it had received a total donation of Rs 80.57 crore that year. Out of which Rs 27 crore came from Prudent.

Interestingly, YSRCP’s kitty received a multi-fold increase in contribution months before the general elections in 2019. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP received Rs 8.54 crore in 2017-18 which skyrocketed to Rs 80.57 crore in the election year. The donations to the party were higher when compared to other state-recognised political parties.

Prudent Electoral Trust was in the news for contributing Rs 144 crore (about 82 per cent) of its total Rs 169 crore FY 2018 income to the BJP. It gave Rs 10 crore to the INC and Rs 5 crore to BJD in the same year. This is probably the first time YSRCP is receiving funds from Prudent and in such a significant figure.

Located at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, Prudent was earlier known as Satya Electoral Trust. Incorporated a year before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it is labelled as one of the richest among 22 electoral trusts registered in India.

“Prudent is a trust set up by a giant corporation. Many companies route money to political parties through this trust. The body usually submits its list of contributors to the Election commission of India. For FY 2018 their major donors were DLF Group (Rs 52 crore), Bharti Group (Rs 33 crore), UPL (Rs 22 crore), and Torrent Power (Rs 20 crore). The current list will be submitted by September 2019,” said Professor Jagdeep Chhokar, a member of Association of Democratic Reform (ADR).

The company has two directors. The longest-serving directors currently on board are Mukul Goyal and Ganesh Venkatachalam. The former has a seat in three companies.

Apart from Prudent, the other significant contributors that showed up in the donors’ list are Andru Minerals (Rajamahendravaram-Rajahmundry) and MVV builders (Visakhapatnam). While Bengaluru based IND Sing Developers also find themselves in one of the top positions.

Jagan, who owns a house and a few commercial complexes in Bengaluru, has been able to get funders based out from the city. A considerable sum of money came from donors in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam as well.

Top Funders:

1. Prudent Electoral trust-New Delhi: Rs 27 crore

2. Andru Minerals -Rajahmundry: Rs 9. 5 crore

3. MVV Builders – Visakhapatnam: Rs 9 crore

4. IND Sing Developers Pvt LTD –Bengaluru: Rs 5 crore

5. Mullapudi Veera Venkata Satyanarayana: RS 2 crore

6. Subha Gruha Projects -New Delhi: Rs 1. 35 crore

7. Haigreeva Infratech Projects Limited: Rs 1. 25 crore

8. Rachamallu Ravi Sankar Reddy-Kadapa: Rs 1 crore

9. Champion Land Zone Private Limited: 1 crore

10. Fuzen Software private limited: Rs 1 crore.