Tata Group Trusts Donate ₹757 Crore to BJP, Congress Receives ₹77 Crore; Here’s How Other Parties Fared

New Delhi: Despite the Supreme Court’s February 2024 decision to end electoral bonds, corporate political donations continue to heavily favor the BJP, according to the latest electoral trust reports.

The Progressive Electoral Trust (PET), controlled by the Tata Group, contributed a staggering ₹915 crore in political funding during 2024-25, with nearly 83% (₹757.6 crore) going to the BJP. The Congress, by comparison, received only 8.4% (₹77.3 crore) from PET. Other donations to BJP came from the New Democratic Trust (₹150 crore), Harmony Trust (₹30.1 crore), Troyemph Trust (₹21 crore), Jan Kalyan Trust (₹9.5 lakh), and Ingeniarting Trust (₹7.75 lakh).

BJP Dominates Corporate Funding
This is not new. During the 2018-19 Lok Sabha elections, PET had already given BJP the largest share of donations—₹356 crore out of ₹454 crore distributed among three parties. While data from the Prudent Electoral Trust for 2024-25 is not yet available, BJP has historically received over ₹800 crore from trusts and more than ₹1,600 crore via electoral bonds in previous years.

Congress Receives Modest Share
Congress received ₹77.3 crore from PET, ₹5 crore from the New Democratic Trust, and ₹9.5 lakh from Jan Kalyan Trust. Additionally, the Prudent Trust contributed ₹216.33 crore and AB General Trust gave ₹15 crore. While these contributions form a substantial part of Congress’s funding for the year, they are significantly lower than the ₹828 crore the party received through bonds in 2023-24.

Regional Parties See Decline
Smaller regional parties, including Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress, Shiv Sena, BJD, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, JD(U), DMK, and LJP-Ram Vilas, received comparatively modest donations of ₹10 crore each from PET. Many regional parties reported a sharp decline in corporate funding compared to last year, with TMC, BJD, and BRS witnessing the steepest drops.

Corporate Donors Behind the Numbers
Major Tata Group companies such as Tata Sons, TCS, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Communications, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Elxsi, and Tata AutoComp were the primary contributors to PET. The Mahindra Group-backed New Democratic Trust also directed almost all of its contributions to the BJP. Smaller trusts like Troyemph, Harmony, and Jan Pragati also provided funding to BJP and select regional parties.

These figures indicate that even after the abolition of electoral bonds, a significant portion of corporate political funding continues to flow disproportionately toward the BJP, reinforcing its dominant position in party financing.