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Did the BJP dominate Tata Group-backed Progressive Electoral Trust disbursals during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections? With nearly 83 percent of the trust’s Rs 915 crore corpus going to the party, the numbers raise questions about corporate political funding.
BJP received Rs 757 crore in 2024-25.
New Delhi: In the 2024 Lok Sabha election year, the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the leading beneficiary of the Tata Group-backed Progressive Electoral Trust, receiving a staggering Rs 757 crore. This amount accounted for nearly 83 percent of the trust’s total disbursements for 2024-25, according to disclosures submitted to the Election Commission of India.
The Progressive Electoral Trust, with a corpus of Rs 915 crore, distributed funds to 10 political parties. Apart from the BJP, the Congress received Rs 77.3 crore, representing just 8.4 percent of total trust allocations. Smaller amounts of Rs 10 crore each were disbursed to regional players including Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress Party, Shiv Sena, Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Janata Dal (United), and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The entire corpus of the Progressive Electoral Trust in 2024-25 came from 15 companies within the Tata Group. The largest contributors included Tata Sons with Rs 308 crore, Tata Consultancy Services with Rs 217 crore, and Tata Steel with Rs 173 crore. Additional contributions came from Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Elxsi, Tata AutoComp, Tata Communications, and other Tata Group entities. This concentration of corporate contributions in a single political party has sparked discussion about the influence of large conglomerates in Indian electoral politics.
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While the BJP received the bulk of Tata Group-backed funds, Congress also received significant political donations through multiple electoral trusts. In its annual contribution report to the Election Commission, the Congress declared over Rs 517 crore in donations exceeding Rs 20,000 during 2024-25.
Of this, Prudent Electoral Trust contributed Rs 216.33 crore, AB General Electoral Trust gave Rs 15 crore, New Democratic Electoral Trust provided Rs 5 crore, and Jan Kalyan Electoral Trust donated Rs 9.5 lakh. Overall, Congress collected more than Rs 313 crore through the electoral trust route, forming a substantial share of its total contributions for the year.
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Electoral bonds, introduced in 2018, were criticized for their opacity and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2024. Following the discontinuation of electoral bonds, electoral trusts have become the primary vehicle for high-value political donations.
The 2024-25 donation disclosures reveal how trusts are shaping funding patterns for both national and regional parties, ensuring structured channels for corporate contributions while maintaining some degree of transparency.
Despite submitting its 2024-25 contribution report, the BJP’s details have not yet been uploaded on the Election Commission website. A party functionary said the report was submitted late, and an Election Commission official confirmed that the matter would be looked into.
The dominance of the BJP in Tata Group-backed funding and the increasing role of electoral trusts highlight a changing landscape in India’s political finance system, raising questions about corporate influence and electoral transparency.
