India’s political funding data for FY 2024–25, compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms, shows that the scale of donations is unprecedented. Total declared contributions above Rs 20,000 stood at Rs 6,648.56 crore from 11,343 donations. Of this, the BJP alone accounted for Rs 6,074.01 crore—over ten times the combined total of all other national parties. On average, each BJP donation was worth Rs 109.99 lakh, significantly higher than peers.
Only three parties—BSP, NPEP, and AAP—filed their contribution reports on time. Among other parties, the Congress delayed by 23 days, CPI(M) by 66 days, and the BJP by 68 days.
Donations rose by Rs 4,104.28 crore, a 161% increase from the previous year. BJP’s funding grew by 171%, Congress by 84%, AAP by 244%, and NPEP by 1,313%. The expansion is across the board, though uneven in scale.
Geographically, two states dominate: Delhi and Maharashtra. Together, they contributed over Rs 5,000 crore—Rs 2,639.48 crore from Delhi and Rs 2,438.86 crore from Maharashtra. A small but notable Rs 7.68 crore could not be linked to any state due to incomplete address details.
The source of funds is heavily skewed. Corporate donors contributed Rs 6,128.78 crore, accounting for 92.18% of total donations. Individuals accounted for just Rs 505.66 crore, or 7.61%. For the BJP, over 94% of funding came from corporates, with Congress also showing a strong corporate share.
At the top of the donor list sits the Prudent Electoral Trust, contributing Rs 2,413.46 crore across parties, with a large share going to the BJP. Along with other electoral trusts and corporate entities like Serum Institute of India and Vedanta Limited, a small set of contributors dominates the landscape. In fact, the top two donors alone account for nearly 49% of total donations.
Modes of payment show that 83.22% of donations came via cheque or demand draft, while Rs 1,106.47 crore was transferred through banking channels. Yet, gaps persist: several entries lack complete cheque details, and Rs 3.47 crore worth of donations have missing or incorrect PAN information across parties.
Large contributions stand out. Donations above Rs 100 crore account for over 37% of total funding, even as the majority of individual contributions fall in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh range.
Across metrics—timeliness, concentration, source, and scale—the data is consistent on one point: political funding in India is vast, concentrated, and increasingly structured through a narrow set of channels.