4 min readNew DelhiDec 23, 2025 06:46 AM IST
First published on: Dec 22, 2025 at 06:15 AM IST
JUST SEVEN big corporate houses — Tatas, OP Jindal Group, L&T, Megha Engineering, Ashok Leyland, DLF, Mahindra — with a presence in sectors such as construction, real estate, manufacturing, and power, accounted for more than half the contributions received by electoral trusts in 2024-25.
According to contribution reports submitted by different electoral trusts to the Election Commission of India, Rs 3,811.37 crore was donated to political parties in the last financial year. The seven groups had contributed Rs 2,107 crore, and made up 55 per cent of the corpus of the trusts.
The top three trusts – Prudent Electoral Trust, Progressive Electoral Trust and New Democratic Electoral Trust – accounted for 98 per cent of all contributions.
Electoral Trusts are one of the funding channels for political parties. They became a preferred source of political donation for companies in 2024-25 after the Supreme Court scrapped the electoral bonds scheme in February 2024. In 2023-24, just five trusts reported contributions of a total Rs 1,218.36 crore, which is less than a third of Rs 3,811 crore reported by nine trusts in 2024-25.
Of the trusts, Prudent Electoral Trust was by far the biggest, receiving Rs 2,668.46 crore. Of this, Rs 2,181 crore went to the BJP, accounting for close to 82 per cent of the total. An analysis of the donation data shows that Elevated Avenue Realty, a real estate entity linked to the L&T Group, was the single largest contributor to the trust, having donated Rs 500 crore.
Elevated Avenue Realty LLP, formerly called L&T Avenue Realty LLP, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L&T Realty Properties Limited, as per L&T’s integrated annual report for 2024-25.
The biggest political donor in 2024-25 was the Tata Group, which is a diversified group. Its various companies including Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, and Tata Power Company Limited gave Rs 915 crore to the Progressive Electoral Trust. Close to 83 per cent of these funds, roughly Rs 758 crore, went to the BJP, with the Congress receiving a little over Rs 77 crore, or around 8.5 per cent of the total funds.
Big donors to electoral trusts: Tata to Mahindra, OP Jindal to L&T, Megha.
Eight other parties, including the Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress, Shiv Sena, Biju Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Janata Dal (United), and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), received Rs 10 crore each from the Progressive Electoral Trust.
Another large donor was Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL), a major infrastructure and construction conglomerate, which gave Rs 175 crore to Prudent Electoral Trust. Incidentally, Megha Engineering was the second-highest donor under the erstwhile electoral bonds scheme, with the Hyderabad-based company having purchased bonds worth Rs 966 crore since the scheme’s launch. In addition to the Rs 175 crore donated by the company in 2024-25 to Prudent Electoral Trust, its managing director, PV Krishna Reddy, donated almost Rs 150 crore separately to the trust. According to Forbes, Reddy is worth $2.1 billion.
The other big groups donating to the electoral trusts include: Mahindras Rs 160 crore, OP Jindal Rs 157 crore, DLF Rs 100 crore and Ashok Leyland Rs 100 crore.
Read our exclusive coverage on electoral bonds
- Year after bonds scrapped, BJP’s purse grows over 50% to Rs 6,088 crore
- Big donors to electoral trusts: Tata to Mahindra, OP Jindal to L&T, Megha
- Donations to Congress halves to Rs 522 crore in 2024-25
- DMK donation kitty swells before 2026 battle, rides on rank and file
- Who funds TDP, Jana Sena Party: Pharma, solar, real estate firms to individual donors
- Ahead of Bihar polls, JD(U), LJP(RV) donations jump, bank on electoral trusts
- Individuals dominate AAP’s donor list; funds more than triple to Rs 38.1 crore
- Who funds Trinamool Congress? Electoral trusts, lottery firm among top donors
According to contribution reports submitted by different electoral trusts to the Election Commission of India, Rs 3,811.37 crore was donated to political parties in the last financial year. 
Big donors to electoral trusts: Tata to Mahindra, OP Jindal to L&T, Megha.
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