Fresh data from the Election Commission reveals a significant flow of corporate political donations through electoral trusts in the financial year 2024-25, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging as the primary beneficiary. The figures indicate that the Supreme Court's scrapping of electoral bonds in February 2024 has not completely stemmed the tide of funds to political parties, especially the ruling party.
BJP Dominates Trust Donations, Congress Lags Far Behind
An analysis of contribution reports for 2024-25 shows that almost 83% of the total Rs 915 crore routed through the Tata group-controlled Progressive Electoral Trust (PET) went to the BJP. The Congress party's share from this major trust was a mere 8.4%, amounting to Rs 77.3 crore.
Beyond PET, the BJP received substantial sums from other trusts as well. These include Rs 150 crore from the New Democratic Electoral Trust, over Rs 30.1 crore from Harmony Electoral Trust, Rs 21 crore from Triumph Electoral Trust, and smaller amounts from Jan Kalyan and Einzigartig Trusts. Cumulatively, these trusts contributed nearly Rs 959 crore to the BJP in 2024-25.
The Congress, meanwhile, received Rs 5 crore from New Democratic ET and Rs 9.5 lakh from Jan Kalyan ET, in addition to the PET funds. According to its own contribution report, Congress also received Rs 216.33 crore from Prudent Electoral Trust and Rs 15 crore from A B General ET. In total, over Rs 313 crore of Congress's Rs 517 crore contributions in 2024-25 came via the trust route.
Trusts Become Key Conduit Post-Electoral Bonds
The data underscores the growing role of electoral trusts as a channel for political funding following the abolition of the anonymous electoral bond scheme. While the BJP's trust-based income remains robust, the figures for several regional parties show a sharp decline compared to the bond era.
For instance, the Congress's trust receipts in 2024-25 are significantly lower than the Rs 828 crore it received via bonds in 2023-24, though higher than its Rs 171 crore bond income in the non-election year of 2022-23. The Trinamool Congress (TMC), which got Rs 612 crore from bonds in 2023-24, received Rs 184.5 crore in 2024-25 (Rs 153.5 crore via trusts).
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) saw its donations drop from Rs 245.5 crore in bonds (2023-24) to Rs 60 crore in 2024-25. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) faced a steep decline, with its Rs 495 crore bond contributions eroding to just Rs 15 crore from trusts in 2024-25, down from Rs 85 crore the previous year.
PET, which pools donations from Tata companies and disburses them in Lok Sabha election years, also distributed Rs 10 crore each to several other parties including Trinamool, YSR Congress, Shiv Sena, BJD, BRS, JDU, DMK, and LJP-Ram Vilas.
Corporate Backing and Major Donors
The Tata Group companies that contributed to PET's kitty include Tata Sons Pvt Ltd (Rs 308 crore), TCS (Rs 217.6 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 173 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 49.4 crore), Tata Power (Rs 39.5 crore), Tata Communications (Rs 14.8 crore), and others.
Other notable trusts include the Mahindra Group-backed New Democratic ET, which gave Rs 150 crore of its Rs 160 crore to the BJP, with Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT getting Rs 5 crore each. Triumph ET, funded by a Rs 20 crore contribution from CG Power, disbursed Rs 21 crore to BJP and Rs 4 crore to Telugu Desam Party.
A complete picture is still elusive, as the 2024-25 contribution report of the Prudent Electoral Trust—through which the lion's share of donations was routed in previous years with BJP as the biggest beneficiary—is not yet uploaded on the EC website. In 2023-24, BJP had received Rs 724 crore from Prudent ET alone.
The data confirms that while the mechanism has changed, the flow of corporate funds to political parties, particularly the ruling BJP, continues through structured electoral trusts, raising ongoing questions about transparency and influence in political financing.
