Poll deals: City builders major donors for political parties

As many as 87 per cent of Rs 43 lakh,which is all that the Shiv Sena claims to have received by way of donations in 2007-08,comes from four builders. Two of these are Slum Rehabilitation (SRA) scheme developers: New look Constructions that executes two SRA projects in Dadar-Wadala area and Sai Pushpa Construction that handles three SRA projects in Dharavi. The other two donors are civil contractor FA Construction and the Shelatkar Group whose owner Ravindranath Shelatkar was recently linked to a case in which an estate agent was allegedly framed in a drug and arms racket.

Niranjan Hiranandani,head of Hiranandani Constructions,with his contribution of Rs 1 crore,pips several corporates,political and individual donors to become the fourth largest donor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Other developer-donors of the BJP include Neptune Developers that is developing a township at Ambivli near Kalyan,Unity Infraprojects and Thakur group of companies known for the Thakur Complex at Kandivli. Another significant contributor to the party is Lodha Builders,whose owner Mangal Prabhat Lodha,a BJP MLA,has made contributions both on his own and in his company’s name.

While the Congress’ official list of donors for 2007-08 has names of mostly party members as contributors,its list for the previous year includes the names of Mumbai-based developers Orbit Construction,Unity Construction Company,Ashok Piramal Group’s Peninsula Land Ltd and Neelkanth Mansions & Infrastructure Ltd.

Political activists say the disclosed names are only the tip of the iceberg. On the amounts paid by developers,builder Sunil Mantri,president of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI),said,“It is a difficult question to answer. The chamber itself doesn’t fund any party. We leave it to the individual developer to contribute to whichever party he wishes to.”

“Most developers prefer to bet on the ruling party unless they share a personal rapport or business interest with a particular party. Developers are getting calls asking for their contributions and the money paid is considered an advance payment for projects or policies that will be cleared once the party comes to power,” claimed one real estate player.

Trilochan Sastry,professor at IIM-Bangalore and founder member of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR),said the declared donations are a miniscule portion of the actual amount. The Election Commission limits poll expenses of candidates to Rs 25 lakh per constituency. “The actual money spent on each candidate ranges from Rs 2 crore to Rs 20 crore and much of this amount is paid in black. As the saying goes,‘he who pays the piper calls the tunes’. Builders are not shelling out money out of philanthropy. They will extract their pound of flesh,which will not be in people’s interest,” he said.

Sastry said while state funding of election expenses of parties is a powerful alternative,safeguards such as clear caps on the amount of money that can be donated or stiff action against both the donor and party not adhering to the limit are good enough to ensure fair elections.