BJP Got Rs 6,654 Crore In Donations In 2024-25, Congress Saw Huge Dip

The BJP received Rs 6,654.93 crore in donations during the 2024-25 financial year, also a Lok Sabha election year, registering a 68 per cent jump compared to the previous year.

The BJP, the world's largest political party by membership, has submitted to the Election Commission a report on the contributions it received in the last fiscal. The report was submitted on December 8, two days before the deadline. Now available on the Commission's website, the report lists only contributions above Rs 20,000.

According to the report, the donations were received between April 1, 2024 and March 30, 2025, a period during which the country witnessed the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections to Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Delhi.

The BJP, which received donations worth Rs 3,967 crore in the last fiscal, posted a 68 per cent jump this time.

Around 40 per cent of donations to the BJP came from electoral trusts. The Prudent Electoral Trust donated Rs 2,180 crore, the Progressive Electoral Trust contributed Rs 757 crore, and the New Democratic Electoral Trust donated Rs 150 crore. Contributions from other electoral trusts amounted to Rs 3,112.5 crore. The remaining donations were received from companies and individuals. An electoral trust is set up by companies to distribute contributions received from companies and individuals to political parties.

Among corporate donors, Serum Institute of India donated Rs 100 crore, Rungta Sons Private Limited contributed Rs 95 crore, Vedanta donated Rs 67 crore, and Macrotech Developers (now renamed Lodha Developers) gave Rs 65 crore. Three different Bajaj Group companies together donated Rs 65 crore, while Derive Investments contributed Rs 50 crore.

Malabar Gold donated Rs 10 crore, Kalyan Jewellers gave Rs 15.1 crore, the Hero Group donated Rs 23.65 crore, Dilip Buildcon Group contributed Rs 29 crore, ITC Limited gave Rs 35 crore, Wave Industries donated Rs 5.25 crore, and Zerodha's investment company, promoted by Nikhil Kamath, contributed Rs 1.5 crore.

Several BJP leaders also made individual donations. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma donated Rs 3 lakh, Assam minister Pijush Hazarika gave Rs 2.75 lakh, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan donated Rs 1 lakh, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi contributed Rs 5 lakh, Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava donated Rs 1 lakh, and Akash Vijayvargiya, son of BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, donated Rs 1 lakh, along with several other party leaders.

The BJP's donation receipts for 2024-25 are the highest in the last five years, the report shows.

Other political parties reported significant changes in their donations this year. The Congress received Rs 522.13 crore, marking a sharp decline of about 43 per cent from Rs 1,129 crore in 2023-24. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) saw its donations fall to Rs 184.08 crore from Rs 618.8 crore last year. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) registered just Rs 15.09 crore, a steep drop from Rs 580 crore previously. In contrast, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reported an increase, collecting Rs 39.2 crore compared to Rs 22.1 crore last year. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) received Rs 85.2 crore in donations, down from Rs 274 crore, but also earned Rs 102 crore through fees and subscriptions. Meanwhile, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) managed only Rs 60 crore this year, compared to Rs 246 crore in the last fiscal.

The 2024-25 financial year is also the first year without electoral bonds after the Supreme Court struck down the scheme as unconstitutional. Under the electoral bond scheme, political parties had received over Rs 16,000 crore in anonymous donations over the years, with the BJP receiving the largest share.

Electoral bonds, introduced in 2018, allowed individuals and corporates to donate to political parties without publicly disclosing their identity. After the scheme was struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2024, this is the first year in which political parties have not received donations through electoral bonds.