The Crossbill News Desk
Fresh disclosures from the Election Commission have shed new light on political funding in 2024-25, revealing that the Bharatiya Janata Party remained the dominant recipient of donations routed through electoral trusts despite the Supreme Court scrapping electoral bonds earlier this year.
The latest filings show that the BJP received Rs 959 crore from various trusts, with Tata group-controlled Progressive Electoral Trust (PET) alone contributing Rs 757 crore — accounting for 83% of the party’s total collections through this channel.
These PET contributions arrived in April 2024, just ahead of the general elections and only weeks after the Narendra Modi government cleared subsidies exceeding Rs 44,000 crore for two Tata group semiconductor manufacturing plants in Assam and Gujarat.
A recent Scroll investigation highlighted this timeline, drawing attention to the proximity of the policy decisions and large corporate donations.
Electoral trusts, considered more transparent than the now-defunct electoral bonds, continue to be a significant avenue for political funding. Even before the bonds were declared unconstitutional in February 2024, the BJP had emerged as their biggest beneficiary, receiving Rs 1,685 crore from them in 2023-24. The new disclosures suggest that the party’s dominance in fundraising has continued uninterrupted through the electoral trust system.
According to EC documents, PET’s Rs 757.6 crore contribution was followed by Rs 150 crore from the Mahindra group-backed New Democratic Electoral Trust, Rs 30.1 crore from Harmony ET, Rs 21 crore from Triumph ET, Rs 9.5 lakh from Jan Kalyan ET and Rs 7.75 lakh from Einzigartik ET, as reported by The Times of India.
PET, which pools funds from Tata group companies, has consistently favoured the BJP in election years. In 2018-19, it allocated Rs 356 crore to the party — 75% of its total disbursals that year.
The largest electoral trust in recent years, Prudent ET, has not yet uploaded its 2024-25 data. In 2023-24, it had contributed Rs 724 crore to the BJP out of the party’s total Rs 856.4 crore raised via trusts that year. PET’s overwhelming support for the BJP also mirrors earlier patterns, making the ruling party its biggest recipient in both 2018-19 and 2024-25.
In contrast, the Congress’ fundraising through electoral trusts remained modest. PET gave the party Rs 77.3 crore in 2024-25, while New Democratic ET contributed Rs 5 crore and Jan Kalyan ET Rs 9.5 lakh. Congress’ own filings show that it received Rs 216.33 crore from Prudent ET and Rs 15 crore from A B General ET, and that Rs 313 crore of its total Rs 517 crore contributions came through the trust route. While this is far below the Rs 828 crore it received through electoral bonds in 2023-24, it is still substantially higher than the Rs 171 crore raised in 2022-23, a non-election year.
Other major parties — including the Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress, Shiv Sena, Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Janata Dal (United), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) — each received Rs 10 crore from PET, reflecting the trust’s broader disbursal pattern beyond the national parties.
The latest filings show that the BJP received Rs 959 crore from various trusts, with Tata group-controlled Progressive Electoral Trust (PET) alone contributing Rs 757 crore — accounting for 83% of the party’s total collections through this channel.
These PET contributions arrived in April 2024, just ahead of the general elections and only weeks after the Narendra Modi government cleared subsidies exceeding Rs 44,000 crore for two Tata group semiconductor manufacturing plants in Assam and Gujarat.
A recent Scroll investigation highlighted this timeline, drawing attention to the proximity of the policy decisions and large corporate donations.
Electoral trusts, considered more transparent than the now-defunct electoral bonds, continue to be a significant avenue for political funding. Even before the bonds were declared unconstitutional in February 2024, the BJP had emerged as their biggest beneficiary, receiving Rs 1,685 crore from them in 2023-24. The new disclosures suggest that the party’s dominance in fundraising has continued uninterrupted through the electoral trust system.
According to EC documents, PET’s Rs 757.6 crore contribution was followed by Rs 150 crore from the Mahindra group-backed New Democratic Electoral Trust, Rs 30.1 crore from Harmony ET, Rs 21 crore from Triumph ET, Rs 9.5 lakh from Jan Kalyan ET and Rs 7.75 lakh from Einzigartik ET, as reported by The Times of India.
PET, which pools funds from Tata group companies, has consistently favoured the BJP in election years. In 2018-19, it allocated Rs 356 crore to the party — 75% of its total disbursals that year.
The largest electoral trust in recent years, Prudent ET, has not yet uploaded its 2024-25 data. In 2023-24, it had contributed Rs 724 crore to the BJP out of the party’s total Rs 856.4 crore raised via trusts that year. PET’s overwhelming support for the BJP also mirrors earlier patterns, making the ruling party its biggest recipient in both 2018-19 and 2024-25.
In contrast, the Congress’ fundraising through electoral trusts remained modest. PET gave the party Rs 77.3 crore in 2024-25, while New Democratic ET contributed Rs 5 crore and Jan Kalyan ET Rs 9.5 lakh. Congress’ own filings show that it received Rs 216.33 crore from Prudent ET and Rs 15 crore from A B General ET, and that Rs 313 crore of its total Rs 517 crore contributions came through the trust route. While this is far below the Rs 828 crore it received through electoral bonds in 2023-24, it is still substantially higher than the Rs 171 crore raised in 2022-23, a non-election year.
Other major parties — including the Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress, Shiv Sena, Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Janata Dal (United), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) — each received Rs 10 crore from PET, reflecting the trust’s broader disbursal pattern beyond the national parties.
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