Rs 6,000 cr and counting: BJP takes 85 pc share of political donations in 2024–25

During the recently concluded winter session of Parliament, senior Congress leader and party treasurer Ajay Maken flagged what he described as a deeply disturbing trend in India’s electoral democracy.

He pointed out that the ruling BJP now sits on a staggering bank balance of over Rs 10,100 crore, arguing that such overwhelming financial asymmetry strikes at the very core of democratic competition, which is premised on a level playing field among political parties.

Maken's comments come close on the heels of disclosures revealing that the BJP not only holds an unprecedented corpus but has also cornered the lion’s share of political donations over the last two years — even after the Supreme Court scrapped the electoral bonds scheme, terming it unconstitutional.

Ironically, the electoral bonds scheme, introduced in 2018, was projected by the Modi government as a mechanism to enhance transparency in political funding.

What has emerged instead, is the exact opposite: unprecedented opacity, corporate concentration of donations, and a skewed funding ecosystem favouring the ruling party.

According to fresh data published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday, the BJP received over Rs 6,000 crore in political donations in 2024–25, a sharp jump from nearly Rs 4,000 crore in 2023–24.

In contrast, the principal opposition party Congress received Rs 522 crore during the same period — less than one-twelfth of the BJP’s collections.

The ECI released disclosures submitted by the BJP detailing contributions above Rs 20,000. Similar disclosures by the Congress and six other political parties and electoral trusts had been made public last month.

Significantly, the BJP’s share of total political donations surged to 85 per cent in 2024–25, from 56 per cent in the year preceding the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

At the top of the donor list is Prudent Electoral Trust, which donated Rs 2,181 crore to the BJP and Rs 216 crore to the Congress. The trust’s largest contributor was Elevated Avenue Realty LLP, linked to Larsen & Toubro, which alone contributed Rs 500 crore.

Second is the Progressive Electoral Trust, which donated Rs 757.6 crore to the BJP and Rs 77.3 crore to the Congress. This trust is controlled by the Tata Group, which routed massive donations to the BJP weeks after securing semiconductor projects backed by generous government subsidies — making the Tata Group the single largest identifiable corporate donor to the ruling party.

The third major contributor, AB General Trust, donated Rs 606 crore to the BJP and just Rs 15 crore to the Congress. While the Election Commission has yet to disclose its donors, the trust has traditionally been associated with the Aditya Birla Group.

These revelations have triggered sharp reactions from Opposition leaders, journalists and social activists, who see the revelations as further evidence of institutionalised imbalance in political funding.

Political commentator Raju Parulekar wrote on X: “The ‘party with a difference’, headed by ‘fakeers’, is amassing land and wealth worth thousands of crores — no income tax, no investigation, no scrutiny, no oversight whatsoever.”

Congress spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed said the disclosures vindicate the Opposition’s long-standing charge. “Electoral bonds were declared unconstitutional and struck down by the Supreme Court. Yet the BJP’s racket of extracting funds through government agencies continues. Out of Rs 3,811 crore donated by companies through electoral trusts, the BJP alone received Rs 3,112 crore. This is clearly not a level playing field.”

Journalist Piyush Rai also pointed out that nearly 83 per cent of the Rs 915 crore routed through the Tata Group–controlled Progressive Electoral Trust in 2024 went to the BJP.

Taken together, it raises a fundamental question confronting Indian democracy: Can elections remain free and fair when political finance is so overwhelmingly tilted in favour of the ruling party?

For the Opposition, Ajay Maken’s warning is not merely about numbers — it is about the creeping erosion of democratic competition, where financial muscle, corporate backing and state power appear to converge, leaving little room for electoral equality for Opposition parties.