History so far: The Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party, which has been re-elected for power for the third time in June 2024, was armed with 88% of donations received by political parties in 2023-24. The analysis of the income and expenses reports, including donations greater than ₹ 20,000 declared by the main national parties show that BJP had an income of ₹ 4340 million rupees, including ₹ 2243 million rupees in individual donations. Or these BJP only spent ₹ 2211 million rupees (50.96%) or their income, a notable association for democratic reform (ADR).
The last set of income and expenses statements is the first since the Supreme Court discarded the electoral bond scheme that had raised ₹ 16,518 million rupees in 30 sections since 2018.
Here is a look at the political contributions and expenses of the two main national parties of India.
Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party
Donations
BJP support contributions in ₹ 3967 million rupees by 2023-24. Of these ‘voluntary contributions’, ₹ 2243 million rupees come from 8358 donations of more than ₹ 20,000, including ₹ 856 million rupees through six electoral trusts. They separate from contributions, BJP revenues also include ₹ 369 million rupees in interest and ₹ 2.7 million rupees in rates and subscriptions.
BJP has received ₹ 2064 million rupees of corporate houses in donations, while individual donors contributed to ₹ 169 million rupees. The party also received donations from units/party units worth ₹ 1.09 million rupees, while ₹ 9,147 million rupees were of unst declared donors. In addition, BJP received ₹ 1685 million rupees came from electoral bonds, which constitute 38.84% of the total income of the parties.
A monthly analysis of ADR’s contributions found that September 2023 and March 2024 were when BJP received its maximum contributions. However, the declared dates of BJP donations are hardly equivalent to ₹ 85 million rupees, while the dates of 7996 donations worth ₹ 2158 million rupees are unknown. The donations mentioned above are payments made through checks/DD or bank transfers.
The main donations to BJP were ₹ 723 million Rupias of Electoral Prudent Trust and ₹ 127 million rupees of Triumph Electoral Trust. Although the company that donated to the BJP through electoral trusts is not known, the main donors of electoral trust are Nippon Steel India Ltd (₹ 100 million rupees), DLF (₹ 100 million rupees), Maatha projects (₹ 75 crore), Cesc Ltd (₹ ₹ ₹ ₹ ₹ ₹ Indian Suzuki (₹ 60 crore). BJP also saw a jump in the contributions of the electoral trust of ₹ 265 million rupees in 2022-23 to ₹ 723,785 in 2023-24, coinciding with the election year of Lok Sabha.
Expenses and funds not spent
BJP revenues increased by 83.85% of ₹ 2360,844 million rupees for 2022-23 to ₹ 4340.473 million rupees in 2023-24. Similarly, their expenses also increased from ₹ 1361 million rupees in 2022-23 to ₹ 2211.7 million rupees in 2023-24. In both years, 80% of their expenses went to the elections and general propaganda. In 2022-23, BJP spent ₹ 1092 million rupees in its electoral campaign, while in 2023-24 it spent ₹ 1754 million rupees, a 64% increase in expenses. BJP’s electoral campaign spending in the previous survey cycle of Lok Sabha also shows that the party spent 792 million rupees in 2018-19, an increase of 40% between 2017 and 18 when they spent ₹ 567 million rupees.
Currently, BJP has a ruptor of ₹ 2128 not spent in its kitten, so it amounts to 49% of its total income. Also in the previous year, BJP had not spent around ₹ 1000 million rupees, 42% of its revenues of ₹ 2360 million rupees. BJP’s unbelievable funds have constantly increased in the last two Lok Sabha cycles.
In 2012-2013, a year before the Lok Sabha Polls-BJP had unbounded funds of ₹ 101 million rupees-31% of its total income of ₹ 324 million rupees. This was the last year when the BJP coffers were lower than the Congress, which had unbelicing funds of ₹ 111 million rupees. However, the following year (2013-14), BJP’s revenues flourished at ₹ 673 million rupees, Surfiling Congress, which declared ₹ 598 million rupees as their income. By the way, electoral trusts had instituted themselves in January 2013, racing the way for corporate financing of political campaigns. At the end of Lok Sabha’s elections, BJP had spent ₹ 328 million rupees, leaving ₹ 345 million rupees in his kitten.
Similarly, in 2017-18, BJP had an excess of ₹ 268.87 million rupees-26% of the total income of ₹ 1027 million rupees. A year later, in 2018-19, the Government of Modi instituted the scheme of electoral bonds, allowing anonymous funds to political parties through four sections of bonds published by the State Bank of India. The scheme triggered the BJP revenues of ₹ 1027 million rupees to ₹ 2410 million rupees. After the end of the voting cycle, BJP’s unbelievable funds were at ₹ 1404 million rupees, 58% of their income. The trend shows an expansion of the BJP war chest, slowly accumulating during the last decade and superficial of the power of Congress for survey campaigns.
Indian National Congress
Donations
The main rival Congress of the BJP had contributions of ₹ 1129 million rupees in 2023-24, an increase of 60% between 2022 and 23 when it received ₹ 452 million rupees. Of these ‘voluntary contributions’, Congress received ₹ 828 million rupees through electoral bonds, and ₹ 156 million rupees through electoral trusts. They separate from the contributions, the Congress also obtained ₹ 58 million rupees through coupons, ₹ 21 million rupees through rates and ₹ 14 million rupees through other sources.
In donations, the Congress obtained ₹ 190 million rupees of corporate houses, 24 Lakhs of units and party unions and 1.38 Lakhs of not declared donors. The main donors of the Congress were companies through the electoral prudent Trust (₹ 156 million rupees) and the classic developers of Featherlite Waterfront (₹ 7 million rupees). The party has not revealed monthly donations in its statement.
Expenses and funds not spent
In 2023-24, Congress revenues increased to ₹ 1225 million rupees of ₹ 452 million rupees in 2022-23. Similarly, their expenses also increased from ₹ 467 million rupees in 2022-23 to ₹ 1025 million rupees in 2023-24. Its expenses include ₹ 619.67 million rupees (60.44%) for electoral campaigns, ₹ 340 million rupees for administrative purposes, ₹ 27 million rupees for employee costs and ₹ 37 million rupees for other existence. Similar to BJP, the costs of the electoral campaign of Congress also increased from ₹ 192 million rupees to ₹ 619.67 million rupees, an increase of 69%. However, unlike the BJP, the main expense of Congress in the year before the surveys (2022-23) were the administrative costs of ₹ 235.85 million rupees.
In the previous cycle of Lok Sabha, the electoral expenditure of Congress increased from ₹ 29 million rupees in 2017-18 to ₹ 308 million rupees in 2018-19. Similarly, the main expenses of the Congress in 2017-18 were administrative costs worth ₹ 86 million rupees.
Currently, Congress has ₹ 199 million rupees in funds not spent in its war chest-16.31% of its income in 2023-24. However, in the previous year, Congress expense exceeded its income at ₹ 14.76 million rupees.
Since 2012-2013, the last year, when IT contributions were higher than those of BJP, the Congress Treasury has been oscillating between the surplus and the deficit. The part had funds not spent worth ₹ 111 million rupees in 2012-13, 26% of its income of ₹ 425 million rupees. In 2013-14, Congress expenditure exceeded its income, leaving its coffers with a deficit of ₹ 46 million rupees. In the next Lok Sabha cycle, Congress only ₹ 1.72 million rupees was unpurrected in 2017-18, a mere 1% of its revenues of ₹ 199 million rupees. In the following election year, Congress did not have ₹ 448 million unbounds: 48.81% of its revenues of ₹ 918 million rupees.
Unlike BJP, Congress income has been falling in the decade since power has come out. With an increase in its expense in your electoral campaigns. The party had failed to accumulate funds to match the BJP treasure, placing it in a background.
Published – April 11, 2025 10:31 PM IST