Individuals dominate AAP’s donor list; funds more than triple to Rs 38.1 crore
Corporate contributions remain limited; 43% of funds from Prudent Electoral Trust
Apart from Prudent, the bulk of AAP’s donations came from individuals rather than companies. (file photo) 
Donations to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) jumped more than threefold, rising from Rs 11.06 crore in the financial year 2023–24 to Rs 38.1 crore in 2024–25, according to information that the party submitted to the Election Commission (EC). The data pertains to donors who contributed amounts exceeding Rs 20,000.
More than 43% of the party’s total funds came from the Prudent Electoral Trust, which alone donated Rs 16.4 crore to the AAP during the year. The Trust, which is funded by corporates such as Jindal Steel and Power, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Aurobindo Pharma and Torrent Pharmaceuticals, donated Rs 2,180.07 crore to the BJP in the same period.
Apart from Prudent, the bulk of AAP’s donations came from individuals rather than companies. Among the top 100 donors, only four were entities, including an NGO. Just eight companies featured among the top 300 donors, underlining the limited role of corporate contributions in the party’s funding profile.
In all, 17 companies contributed Rs 90.3 lakh to the party, which suffered a setback earlier this year after losing power in Delhi. The largest organisational donor was Bharatha Swamukti Samsth, a Karnataka-based not-for-profit charitable trust, which donated Rs 30 lakh. Other contributors included Delhi-based Kuber Polyplast, which donated Rs 25 lakh, and Advance Chemicals, which contributed Rs 11 lakh. Smaller donations ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 6 lakh came from a range of businesses, including a pharmaceutical firm, an automobile dealership, a chartered accountant, a diagnostic laboratory, a design firm, a security agency, and a tour company.
Among individual donors, a Mumbai-based contributor Talapady Umashanker Shen who paid Rs 37.74 lakh online was the second-highest donor, next only to the Prudent Electoral Trust. Mangalore-based Michael D’ Souza figured fourth among the top ten donors, contributing Rs 30 lakh.
AAP’s submission to the EC in September 2024 had shown that the party collected Rs 11 crore during 2023–24. That year marked a sharp dip compared to earlier periods, particularly after the party came to power in Punjab in 2022, when it raised Rs 52.4 crore through electoral bonds from its top 10 donors.
The donor list also included several party leaders, including AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who donated Rs 10,000 on 12 occasions. The number appeared repeatedly in contributions by senior leaders. Punjab AAP president and minister Aman Arora also donated Rs 10,000 twelve times, while former Delhi CM Atishi Marlena contributed Rs 3,500 on 12 occasions. Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh and Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan donated Rs 10,000 twelve times each. Education minister Harjot Singh Bains contributed a total of Rs 62,000, split into two instalments of Rs 51,000 and Rs 11,000.
(From electoral trusts to companies and individuals, in a series of articles, The Indian Express examines the funding sources of political parties as mentioned in their contribution reports submitted to the Election Commission. These reports are for 2024-25, the first year after the Supreme Court scrapped the government’s electoral bonds scheme.)
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