BJP received over 10 times the donations of all national parties combined in FY25: ADR
Corporate funding dominated political donations in 2024–25, with BJP accounting for the vast majority, according to Association for Democratic Reforms data.
The BJP received more than 10 times the donations as all other national parties combined in 2024-25. The overall donations received by the national parties themselves shot up by a whopping 161 per cent in the current fiscal as compared to the previous fiscal, stated a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
According to the report, released on Thursday (March 26), total donations above Rs 20,000 declared by the national parties stood at Rs 6,648.563 crore from 11,343 contributions in FY25. Of this, the BJP alone received Rs 6,074.015 crore from 5,522 donations, followed by the Congress with Rs 517.394 crore from 2,501 donations.
The report further stated that the BJP’s declared donations exceeded the combined total of the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the National People's Party (NPEP) for the same period by more than tenfold.
Corporate dominance
The BJP received Rs 5,717.167 crore from 2,794 corporate donations, more than 13 times the combined contributions received by all other national parties, which stood at Rs 411.62 crore. It also received Rs 345.94 crore from 2,627 individual donors.
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However, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared that it did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000, as it has been doing so for the last 19 years.
What other parties got
Among other parties, the AAP received Rs 27.044 crore, a 244 per cent increase, the NPEP got Rs 1.943 crore, an increase of 1,313 per cent, the report said.
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Corporate donations dominated political funding, accounting for Rs 6128.787 crore, or 92.18 per cent of the total contributions, across 3,244 donations. Individual donors contributed Rs 505.66 crore through 7,900 donations, making up 7.61 per cent of the total.
The Congress received Rs 383.86 crore through 112 corporate donations and Rs 132.39 crore from 2,357 individual contributors during the fiscal year.
Trust donations
Among the top donors, Prudent Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 2413.465 crore to the BJP, the Congress and the AAP combined. Of this, Rs 2180.7119 crore went to the BJP (35.90 per cent of total funds received by party), Rs 216.335 crore to the Congress (41.81 per cent of total funds received by party) and Rs 16.4178 crore to the AAP (43.08 per cent of total funds received by party).
aProgressive Electoral Trust donated Rs 834.97 crore through two donations, AB General Electoral Trust donated Rs 621 crore through 16 donations, and New Democratic Electoral Trust donated Rs 155 crore through seven donations to the BJP and the Congress.
Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd donated Rs 100 crore through three donations, and Rungta Sons Private Limited donated Rs 95 crore through four donations to the BJP in 2024-25.
(With agency inputs)