In 2023-24, while the electoral trusts donated the largest sums to political parties, infrastructure and pharmaceutical companies were the next biggest donors, as per data published by the Election Commission (EC) and recently compiled by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Among these companies, at least five are facing probes by various central agencies, of which four have donated large sums to the BJP while one, based in Hyderabad, has given funds to the Congress.
An analysis of the top 20 donors for nine major parties – including the BJP, Congress, AAP, TDP, JD(U), TMC, DMK, YSRCP and BRS – shows that the parties received the highest donations worth Rs 1,196 crore from Prudent Electoral Trust, Triumph Electoral Trust, and Jayabharath Electoral Trust. Six of these nine parties received funds from them. The electoral trusts act as intermediaries between donors and parties.
CHART: Top donors in 2023-24.
Among the top 20 donors for all these parties, Prudent and Triumph gave the most funds in 2023-24 at Rs 1,061 crore and Rs 132.5 crore, respectively. The next largest donor, at Rs 53.35 crore, was Derive Investments, a Mumbai-based venture fund. The other big donors are largely companies in the infrastructure, pharmaceutical and mining sectors.
A sector-wise breakdown shows that infrastructure and construction companies were the top donors, both by the number of companies and the total funds donated. Put together, 23 such companies, which often rely on governments for project approvals and tenders, gave Rs 248 crore. The BJP was the biggest beneficiary, receiving Rs 227 crore from infrastructure firms, followed by ally TDP at Rs 10.83 crore and the Congress at Rs 9 crore. The only other parties who received funds from such companies are the JD(U) and AAP.
CHART: Sector-wise breakdown of donors in 2023-24.
Among the top 20 donors for all these parties, Prudent and Triumph gave the most funds in 2023-24 at Rs 1,061 crore and Rs 132.5 crore, respectively. The next largest donor, at Rs 53.35 crore, was Derive Investments, a Mumbai-based venture fund. The other big donors are largely companies in the infrastructure, pharmaceutical and mining sectors.
A sector-wise breakdown shows that infrastructure and construction companies were the top donors, both by the number of companies and the total funds donated. Put together, 23 such companies, which often rely on governments for project approvals and tenders, gave Rs 248 crore. The BJP was the biggest beneficiary, receiving Rs 227 crore from infrastructure firms, followed by ally TDP at Rs 10.83 crore and the Congress at Rs 9 crore. The only other parties who received funds from such companies are the JD(U) and AAP.
CHART: Sector-wise breakdown of donors in 2023-24.
The infra companies
The biggest infrastructure donor was the Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon, an Ahmedabad-based firm that has been involved in dozens of major government projects in and outside Gujarat, which alone gave Rs 50 crore to the BJP, followed by Macrotech Developers, a Mumbai-based firm owned by Maharashtra Cabinet minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, at Rs 29.7 crore.
CHART: Top donors for BJP.
Dineshchandra R Agarwal Infracon has been facing investigations by the Income Tax Department since 2016, when the company premises were raided by the authorities. It was later served tax notices in 2021-22 in the same case. According to I-T Department submissions in court, the probe found that “the DRA group has generated unaccounted money by way of booking bogus subcontractors expenses”.
The company had also donated Rs 15 crore through electoral bonds to the BJP in 2023 and Rs 3 crore to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The company had then bagged a Rs 1,200 crore Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) contract under the Mahayuti government. An email sent to the company did not elicit any response.
Under the scanner of central agencies, Dilip Buildcon is another infra company that has donated to the BJP. In December 2021, three senior executives of this real estate firm were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly bribing an official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for approvals related to a project. The company’s premises were subsequently raided by the agency. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a case of money laundering based on the CBI’s FIR. In February 2023, the ED attached its assets to the tune of Rs 20 lakh in the case. An email sent to the company did not elicit any response.
CHART: Top donors for Congress.
A Hyderabad-based real estate firm Rajapushpa Properties has donated large sums to the Congress through its owners.
Rajapushpa Properties was raided by the I-T Department for alleged tax evasion in February 2023. The company is promoted by P Jayachandra Reddy, P Mahender Reddy, P Sreenivas Reddy, P Sujith Reddy, and P Charan Raj Reddy. They have together donated Rs 21.5 crore to the Congress.
Another donor identified as P Pushpaleela Reddy has donated Rs 3 crore to the Congress. The company’s LinkedIn profile says it was started by Parupati brothers in 2006. They are all said to be relatives of former IAS officer P Venkata Rami Reddy, who joined the BRS after retirement. An email sent to the company also did not elicit any response.
The pharma companies
After infrastructure, the pharmaceutical sector is the biggest donor. Fourteen companies together gave Rs 244 crore to parties in 2023-24. Only the BJP and Congress received funds from these companies. Here, too, the BJP was the biggest beneficiary, receiving Rs 240 crore, with the remainder going to the Congress.
Bharat Biotech, the Hyderabad-based firm that developed Covaxin during the Covid-19 pandemic, was the biggest pharmaceutical donor – it alone gave the BJP Rs 50 crore. Four other companies – Zydus Healthcare, Alkem Laboratories, Intas Pharmaceuticals, and Macleods Pharmaceuticals – each gave the BJP Rs 25 crore.
In December 2023, Zydus Healthcare was served an I-T Department’s notice demand of Rs 284.58 crore for the assessment year 2023-2024. In a regulatory filing, however, Zydus Lifesciences, which owns Zydus Healthcare, said the demand was a result of “apparent mistakes while processing its return of income”.
In an email response to a query by The Indian Express on the donations, a Zydus Healthcare spokesperson said, “These are two unrelated matters that you are referring to. The company’s donation to any political party does not have any linkage to any tax-related matters. Any attempt to link both is completely baseless and unfounded.”
In September 2023, the I-T Department had initiated surveys on Alkem Laboratories’ offices and premises following intelligence indicating tax evasion by the pharma company. The company did not respond to an email sent by The Indian Express.
The other major donors
Derive Investments, which gave Rs 50 crore to the BJP and Rs 3.35 crore to the Congress, is one of only two companies among the top 20 donors 2023-24 that gave funds to more than one party. The other such company is Century Plyboard, a Kolkata-based firm, which gave Rs 5 crore to the Congress and Rs 1 crore to the West Bengal’s ruling TMC. In addition, the founders of Century Plyboard, Sajjan Bhajanka and Sanjay Agarwal, donated Rs 8 crore and Rs 5 crore, respectively, to the Congress.
The next biggest donors sector-wise in 2023-24 were mining (Rs 95.7 crore), chemicals (Rs 46.6 crore), and energy (Rs 52 crore).
Among these, Rungta Sons, a Kolkata-based mining company, which gave Rs 50 crore in 2023-24 to the BJP in addition to Rs 50 crore in electoral bonds, has faced I-T Department’s probe.
On December 7, 2023, the I-T Department raided multiple premises associated with Rungta Sons in Jharkhand. The company did not respond to an email sent by The Indian Express.
Overlaps with electoral bonds
Among the top 20 donors for the nine parties are 79 companies, three electoral trusts, two NGOs, and one labour union. Individuals also accounted for many of these donors, including several party legislators and heads of companies. These 79 companies together donated Rs 858 crore in 2023-24, while the individual donors together gave Rs 154 crore.
The sector-wise composition of the companies who donated funds to political parties in 2023-24 mirrors the patterns observed among the companies that bought electoral bonds, as per disclosures made to the EC, between April 2019 and February 2024.
Among the companies that bought electoral bonds for the nine parties analysed, the infrastructure sector is the most represented with 46 companies giving a total Rs 2,012 crore over a five-year period. Among the electoral bonds purchasers, there were also 39 energy companies (who gave a total Rs 1,120), 18 pharmaceutical firms (Rs 433 crore), and 12 mining companies (Rs 839 crore).
Many of the companies who purchased electoral bonds have also figured among the top donors in 2023-24 to the nine parties. There are 26 companies among the top 20 donors in 2023-24 who also bought electoral bonds worth Rs 401 crore.
The top electoral bonds donors among these firms were Natco Pharma, Modern Road Makers, and Rungta Sons.
Among the firms common between the 2023-24 donors and the electoral bonds purchasers, the BJP was the largest beneficiary, having received Rs 304 crore in 2023-24 besides Rs 271 crore through bonds.
However, four companies – Natco Pharma, Nirma, Star Cement Meghalaya, and Vijay Kumar Mishra Construction – donated funds to the BJP just through electoral bonds.
The Congress received Rs 64.5 crore in 2023-24 from six companies that also purchased Rs 36.75 crore in electoral bonds. However, there are six companies who had earlier purchased electoral bonds for the Congress but did not donate to the party in 2023-24, including Zydus Healthcare, Micro Labs, and Modern Road Makers.
The electoral trusts act as intermediaries between donors and parties. (Express file photos) 
CHART: Top donors in 2023-24.
CHART: Sector-wise breakdown of donors in 2023-24.
CHART: Sector-wise breakdown of donors in 2023-24.
CHART: Top donors for BJP.
CHART: Top donors for Congress.
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