Corporate houses dominate political donations: Report
The manufacturing sector has emerged as the biggest donor to electoral trusts, which fund political parties, contributing INR 1,063.128 crore for the year 2024-25, according to a latest report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The second biggest donor is the real estate sector (INR 629.17 crore), followed by the communication, IT, telecom sector (INR 451.85 crore), finance (INR 389.85 crore), and mining, construction, infrastructure engineering (INR 358.68 crore). Besides, 228 corporate or business houses contributed INR 3,636.819 crore, while 99 individuals donated INR 187.6227 crore during the year. The ruling BJP received INR 3,157.6549 crore, accounting for 82.52 per cent of the total funds distributed by the electoral trusts. The Indian National Congress (INC) received INR 298.7795 crore or 7.81 per cent, while the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) got INR 102 crore (2.67 per cent). Nineteen other parties together received INR 267.9178 crore.
According to the report titled Analysis of contribution reports of electoral trusts-FY 2024-25, the top 10 donors together accounted for INR 1,908.8621 crore — nearly 49.89 per cent of the total contributions. Elevated Avenue Realty LLP formerly known as L&T Avenue Realty, was the single-largest donor, contributing INR 500 crore, followed by Tata Sons Private Limited (INR 308.1324 crore), Tata Consultancy Services Limited (INR 217.6216 crore) and Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (INR 175 crore).
The report said Maharashtra emerged as the largest source of contributions, followed by Telangana, Haryana, West Bengal and Gujarat. However, the ADR noted that the donors’ addresses were not disclosed for contributions worth INR 1,065.2048 crore, the bulk of which went to Prudent Electoral Trust, set up originally by Bharti Enterprises. Among the trusts, Prudent Electoral Trust disbursed the highest amount — INR 2,668.4647 crore — to 15 political parties, followed by Progressive Electoral Trust, which donated INR 914.97 crore to 10 parties.
The report also flagged compliance issues. Five of the 15 trusts that submitted annual reports declared nil contributions in FY25. The contribution reports of five registered trusts — Swadeshi Electoral Trust, AB General Electoral Trust, PD General Electoral Trust, Janta Nirvachak Electoral Trust and Independent Electoral Trust — were not available on the ECI’s website, the ADR said. It further pointed out that Harmony Electoral Trust received INR 35.55 crore but disbursed INR 35.65 crore — INR 10 lakh more than it received during the year.
ADR’s report is based on the analysing contribution documents submitted to the Election Commission (EC). It said Electoral trusts received INR 3,826.34 crore in contributions in Financial Year 2024-25 and disbursed INR 3,826.35 crore to political parties, with the BJP receiving more than 82 per cent of the funds.
The electoral bonds scheme, which had allowed anonymous corporate and individual donations to political parties through banking instruments, was scrapped in February 2024 by the Supreme Court, which held it unconstitutional and violative of the voters’ right to information.
