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BJP cornered 85% of political donations last year, up from 56%
The Bharatiya Janata Party received more than Rs 6,000 crore in political donations in 2024-'25, a leap from nearly Rs 4,000 crore in 2023-'24, fresh disclosures filed with the Election Commission of India show.
That is nearly 12 times the collection of the Indian National Congress, which received Rs 522 crore in the same period, falling from Rs 1,130 crore in 2023-'24.
The Election Commission on Friday released disclosures made by the Bharatiya Janata Party about the funds it received from donors who gave away more than Rs 20,000, as well as contribution reports by the Prudent electoral trust about the donations they made to political parties. Similar disclosures by the Congress and six other political parties and electoral trusts had been published last month.
Collating the data, Scroll found that the BJP's share of political donations shot up to 85% in 2024-'25 from 56% in the year leading to the 2024 Lok Sabha election. A large part of these donations were made in April and May, before the election verdict was announced. The ruling party won the election but its tally came down from 303 seats to 240.
Between 2018 and 2024, political parties collected most of their donations through electoral bonds, a scheme that was struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2024. Since then, most corporate groups have switched to electoral trusts to make political donations.
As a result, the largest political donors in 2024-'25 are electoral trusts.
At the top is Prudent Electoral Trust, which donated Rs 2,181 crore to the BJP, and Rs 216 crore to the Congress. The largest contribution to Prudent came from Elevated Avenue Realty LLP, a firm linked to Larsen & Toubro, an engineering and technology conglomerate, amounting to Rs 500 crore.
Second on the list is the Progressive Electoral Trust, which donated Rs 757.6 crore to the BJP and Rs 77.3 crore to the Congress. As Scroll reported last month, the trust is controlled by the Tata Group, which used it to channel the donations to the BJP, weeks after securing semiconductor projects with lucrative subsidies from the Modi government.
This makes the Tata Group the largest individual donor of the BJP.
The third largest contributor among electoral trusts is the AB General Trust, which donated Rs 606 crore to the BJP and Rs 15 crore to the Congress. Though the Election Commission is yet to make its donors public, the trust has traditionally been used by the Aditya Birla group.
The fourth largest donation of Rs 160 crore came from the New Democratic electoral trust – this was sourced entirely from the Mahindra Group. Of this, Rs 150 crore went to the BJP whereas Rs 5 crore each went to the Congress and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
The new disclosures show the same set of companies continued to donate funds to the BJP. What changed was that the amounts increased significantly, with the companies setting aside a much larger share for the ruling party compared to its allies or the Opposition parties.
While the overall amount donated to eight major national and regional political parties remained largely constant at around Rs 7,000 crore, the BJP's share rose from 56% in 2023-'24 to 85% in 2024-'25.
These numbers could see a slight revision after political parties file their audit reports, which will also account for donations below Rs 20,000. Additionally, disclosures for parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are yet to be made public.
The Prudent electoral trust has traditionally been a major donor of the BJP. Data from the Election Commission shows that between 2018 and 2025, its contribution to the BJP increased by more than 32 times.
The most dramatic increase came during the 2024 general elections, with the trust nearly tripling its donations to the BJP from Rs 724 crore to Rs 2,180 crore, according to its latest filing. In comparison, the trust donated just Rs 488 crore to other parties.
As many as 285 donations were made to Prudent by more than 100 firms. The trust then cut cheques to political parties. This makes it hard to trace which firm donated to which political party.
Among the contributors to Prudent, after L&T, the second highest donation came from Megha Engineering and Infrastructures and its promoter, PV Krishna Reddy, amounting to Rs 320 crore. The firm had made the highest contribution to the BJP using electoral bonds between 2018 and 2024.
Tiger Associates, a partnership linked to lottery businessman Santiago Martin – another major electoral bonds donor – donated Rs 147 crore to Prudent. It also donated Rs 50 crore directly to the All India Trinamool Congress, according to the party's disclosure.
Firms linked to the RP Sanjiv Goenka group donated Rs 144 crore to Prudent.
Interglobe Aviation Limited, the parent company of Indigo airlines, donated Rs 40 crore to the trust. Ashok Leyland and Apollo Tyres, with whom Indigo shares common directors in 2024-'25, also donated Rs 150 crore to the trust.
Ashok Leyland is part of the Hinduja group. Combined, the group's firm donated Rs 177.5 crore to Prudent.
Other major donors include firms connected to Naveen Jindal's faction of the OP Jindal group, which donated Rs 107 crore to the trust, followed by the DLF group at Rs 100 crore and the Torrent group at Rs 98.5 crore.
Other companies avoided using electoral trusts and instead made a direct contribution to the BJP, according to the party's latest disclosure.
This includes the Serum Institute of India, which donated Rs 100 crore to the party, followed by the Rungta group at Rs 95 crore.
The Bajaj group donated Rs 74 crore to the BJP, followed by Hero enterprise at Rs 70 crore, the ITC group at 72.5 crore and the Vedanta group at Rs 65 crore.
These groups donated through associate firms and subsidiaries.
ITC also donated Rs 15.5 crore to the Congress in 2024-'25 and Vedanta contributed Rs 20 crore to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the same period.
Firms and people linked to the Kotak group donated Rs 40 crore to the BJP and Rs 10 crore to the Congress.
Century Plywoods (India) Limited and its promoters donated Rs 26 crore to the Congress and Rs 7 crore to the BJP.
Source: Scroll
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