The Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, has become the top recipient of political donations in 2024–2025, collecting more than Rs 6,000 crore. This is 12 times more than what its major rival, the Indian National Congress, received, which stood at Rs 517 crore.

Apart from large donations routed through electoral trusts, companies and individuals also directly contributed substantial sums to the BJP. These include Tata Sons’ Rs 757 crore through electoral trusts, Rungta Sons’ Rs 95 crore, Derive Investments’ Rs 53 crore, and Rs 28 crore from Kaynes Technology and its chairperson.

A total of nine Electoral Trusts have contributed Rs 3811 crore to political parties of which BJP received 82 percent (Rs 3,157 crore).

Despite the Supreme Court striking down the electoral bond scheme last year, the BJP continued to benefit from large donations routed through electoral trusts, which act as intermediaries for companies and individuals. The court had held the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional, citing donor anonymity and the facilitation of unlimited political funding. However, the ruling appears to have had little immediate impact, with electoral trusts accounting for the bulk of political donations.

Big donations to the BJP

Half of the money BJP received in 2024-2025 came from direct donations. 

Kolkata-based mining company Rungta Sons Private Limited, which contributed Rs 95 crore to BJP, was in news recently for acquiring complete ownership of SMC Power Generation Limited, a public limited company. 

Mysore-based firm Kaynes Technology and its founder Ramesh Kunhikannan have together contributed Rs 28 crore to BJP. Keynes Semicon, a subsidiary of Kaynes Technology specializing in outsourced semiconductor assembly, testing, and packaging, initially broke ground for a major facility in Kongarakalan near Hyderabad, but in September 2024 the project was relocated to Sanand, Gujarat. This is because the Union government approved a subsidy of Rs 1,653.5 crore, covering 50 percent of the total project cost of approximately Rs 3,307 crore and the Gujarat government added subsidies over Rs 700 cr.

Vedanta Limited (Rs 67 crore), Modern Road Makers Pvt Ltd (Rs 52 crore) and  Safal Goyal Realty LLP (Rs 45........

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