New Delhi: The landscape of Indian political funding underwent a massive shift in the 2024-25 fiscal year, but the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to have emerged wealthier than ever. Despite the Supreme Court’s February 2024 decision to scrap the controversial Electoral Bonds, the BJP’s latest audit report reveals a staggering surge in direct voluntary contributions, leaving its rivals in the financial dust.
The “great” shift of BJP’s financial health: Corporate cash replaces bonds
In the previous fiscal year (2023-24), the BJP earned roughly Rs 1,686 crore through electoral bonds. When that anonymous tap was turned off by the judiciary, many wondered if the party’s coffers would shrink, but the answer is no. Because the BJP ended up making a surplus of Rs 2,995 crore in fiscal year 2024-25, without electoral bonds.
Instead, the opposite happened in the BJP, where voluntary contributions jumped nearly 54 per cent, from Rs 3,967 crore to Rs 6,125 crore. The scrapping of electoral bonds turned out to be beneficial for the BJP as an “unchecked” rise was witnessed in its financial graph.
Another positive thing that turned beneficial for the party was the power of the corporates. Direct donations from companies and organisations saw a nearly threefold increase, skyrocketing from Rs 1,885 crore to RS 5,422 crore. But all these accounts were scrutinised before that agencies before that, so it can be linked to a calculated move of the judiciary to benefit the BJP, as claimed by the Opposition at that time.
Having started the year with Rs 9,170 crore in the bank, the BJP now sits on a closing balance of Rs 12,164 crore, solidifying its position as the most well-funded political entity in Indian history.
A funding freefall for BJP
While the BJP’s finances boomed, the main opposition, the Indian National Congress, faced a severe squeeze.
The Congress party saw a dip in its receipts earned from grants and donations. The fall of these recipts plummeneted by 54%, falling to just Rs 522 crore. The major opposition political party of the country stood at a total income of Rs 918 crore. It gave a major blow to the finances of the party, where the expenditure crossed the mark of assets. The expenditures of the party reached Rs 1,112 crore, close to Rs 300 crore more than the earnings.
Congress left “high and dry”
Due to the law brought by the same legilation the bond impacted the health of the Congress party’s finances badly. The Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced by the BJP government as a law, through amendments in the Finance Act 2017. The law resulted in the downfall of the Congress party. The party was hit hard through the bonds route. It collapsed to 522 crore from Rs 828 crore, which it had raised through that channel before the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in February 2024. Congress increased its election spending to Rs 896 crore, but it remained a fraction of the BJP’s total war chest.
Has secret bond income tuned to the “Individual income”
To the surprise, when the per Individual economy of the people in India, as claimed in past by the opposition leaders, “has dropped”, the rising boom in the finances of the BJP has put a question mark over the closed bond scheme which was introduced by the same party. The rise in income through the “individual support” reached Rs 641 crore to Rs 240 crore, more than double. So the question is, who are these individuals?
Where is the money invested by the BJP?
The BJP didn’t just collect record funds; it spent them at an unprecedented scale. The party’s total expenditure reached Rs 3,775 crore, with Rs 3,335 crore dedicated specifically to election campaigning, nearly double what it spent the previous year.
In its audit report, the party mentioned that the biggest ticket item of Rs 1,125 crore, which earlier was Rs 435 crore, belongs to electronic media. A huge portion of the expenses was used for air travel. The party spent Rs 583 crore on jet-setting for campaigns.
Not leaving their candidates “high and dry”, the party spent Rs 313 crore to financially assist its leaders who are contesting elections from different parts of the country and cannot afford their campaign expenses.
Nearly Rs 143 crore was spent on rallies and meetings by the party, with Rs 91 crore spent on morchas and rallies, while meeting expenses amounted to nearly Rs 52 crore. It combined all the expenses used to organise marches, rallies, and organisational meetings. As the main focus was on electronic media, little attention was paid to hoarding advertising. In its audit report, the party revealed that Rs 107 crore was to keep the party’s message on every street corner. However, the expenditure was more than the previous year, but it still remained at the bottom in 2024-25.