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With Bonds Scrapped, Electoral Trusts Surge and Steer Most Corporate Money to BJP

Filings show the trusts’ pooled structure obscures donor-to-party links, creating partial opacity despite formal disclosures.

Overview

  • In FY25, contributions routed via electoral trusts jumped to ₹3,811 crore, roughly triple the previous year’s total.
  • Three vehicles — Prudent, Progressive and New Democratic — handled about 98% of trust flows, with Prudent alone receiving ₹2,668 crore.
  • The BJP received about ₹3,112 crore through trusts, or roughly 82% of such funds, compared with about ₹299 crore for the Congress.
  • Trusts list all donors and all recipient parties, but filings do not map specific donors to specific parties, a gap critics describe as “anonymity-lite.”
  • The Election Commission has issued no new trust-specific rules since the Supreme Court voided electoral bonds, even as debate intensifies over fairness and transparency.