With the new year’s beginning, the countdown to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 has started. The recent report from the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest donations through electoral trusts in 2022–23.

Ruling party donations

ADR, the NGO working for electoral reforms, in its report states that accounting for 70.69% of total electoral trust donations, the BJP received ₹259.08 crore as donations through electoral trust in 2022-2023.

The BJP received ₹256.225 cr from Prudent Electoral Trust and ₹1.50 cr from Samaj Electoral Trust Association. The latter also donated ₹50 lakh to the Indian National Congress (INC).

Chandrashekar Rao’s party

While the BJP tops the list, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) received the second highest electoral trust donations at ₹90 cr, 24.56% of electoral trust donations, as per the ADR report.

The YSR Congress received ₹16 cr, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ₹90 lakh, and the Indian National Congress (INC) ₹50 lakh as donations through electoral trust.

Out of 18 electoral trusts in India, only five trusts submitted their contribution report for FY 2022–23, including Prudent Electoral Trust, Samaj Electoral Trust Association, Paribartan Electoral Trust, Triumph Electoral Trust, and Einzigartig Electoral Trust, as per the Election Commission of India website.

Contributions from these five electoral trusts were worth ₹366.495 cr.

What are electoral trusts?

An electoral trust is a trust set up by companies with the sole objective of distributing the contributions received from other companies and individuals to political parties.

The company that came out as the top contributor was Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL), with ₹89 cr of donations. In the second position, Adar Poonawala’s Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd contributed ₹50.25 cr.

ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Ltd contributed ₹50 cr. The top 10 donors contributed a total of ₹332.26 cr to the electoral trust, accounting for 90.66% of donations in 2022–23.

As per the ADR report, only 13 registered trusts out of 18 have disclosed their contribution reports.

The ADR is a watchdog, established in 1999 by a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. 

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