Individuals account for just 5.6% of the total donations to the BJP, with the remaining amount coming from electoral trusts, corporations and other businesses, while the Congress got 26% of its contributions from individual donors, the parties’ annual contribution reports of 2024-2025 show.The reports published by the Election Commission this month show that the BJP got Rs 345 crore from this category of donors and the Congress Rs 139 crore during this period — at least 2,045 individuals donated to the BJP and 2,386 to the Congress.AdvertisementThe Indian Express reported on December 22 that the BJP’s contribution report for 2024-25, the year Lok Sabha elections were held, showed that it received Rs 6,088 crore during the year — about 53 per cent higher than Rs 3,967 crore it received in 2023-24 and almost 12 times more than Congress’s Rs 516 crore in the same period.According to Election Commission rules, parties are required to submit details of all donations above Rs 20,000 made through cheque, bank transfer, UPI or DD — donations in cash can be made only up to Rs 20,000.BJP: CMs, Ministers on listIn the case of the BJP, 79 individuals donated a total of Rs 279.91 crore, each donating Rs 50 lakh and above. The highest amounts were given by donors identified as Suresh Amritlal Kotak (Rs 30 crore), Alla Dakshayani (Rs 25 crore) and Ramesh Kunnhikannan (Rs 17 crore).AdvertisementExplained | What are electoral trusts and how are they funded?A total of 436 individuals donated Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh each, totalling Rs 49.58 crore. Another 726 individuals made donations of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh each, while 804 individuals donated less than Rs 1 lakh. Among the donors were senior party leaders, including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (Rs 1 lakh), Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (Rs 3 lakh), Haridwar MP and former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat (Rs 11.51 lakh), and West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya (Rs 1 lakh).“The amount donated by corporate entities, some of which are led by generational BJP supporters, will certainly be more in totality, but it is the small, round-the-clock donations made by the party’s members somewhere or the other in India and abroad that is at the core,” a BJP leader said.Another leader said these individual donations include “collections made through ‘daan petis’ at party events at the local level to humble contributions from party workers who travel to the Capital to get a donation “parchi” cut in their name”. “We conduct regular membership drives, which add lakhs of fresh individuals to the party fold. Here, too, new members make donations to mark the occasion,” the leader said.Cong: Rs 45 cr from 22 donorsAccording to the contribution report for 2024-25 submitted by the Congress, individual donors gave amounts ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 7.5 crore.The break-up shows that 22 individuals donated over Rs 50 lakh each to total Rs 45.35 crore. Of the others, 216 donors gave amounts ranging between Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh amounting to Rs 99.90 lakh; 1,479 others donated between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh totalling 36.95 crore; and, another 669 individuals donated between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50 lakh amounting to Rs 56.04 crore.The biggest individual contribution came from Suresh A Kotak (Rs 7.5 crore) with a listed address in Mumbai followed by Sajjan Bhajanka (Rs 6 crore) with an address in Kolkata and Sanjay Agarwal (Rs 5 crore) also from Kolkata.Top contributors from within the party included Rajya Sabha member P Chidambaram (Rs 3 crore) and MP Rajeev Gowda (Rs 4.2 crore) in five tranches while Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah donated Rs 2.5 lakh.most readAlso Read | What are electoral bonds, how has govt defended them, what Supreme Court has to decide“The Congress top leadership, including Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, has been advocating that we focus on small and individual donations. We know that BJP is getting disproportionate support from big corporates. The Congress has got just 8% of the funds via electoral trusts, while BJP got 82%. We have been focussing on individual donations,” Congress MP Manickam Tagore said.Another senior leader, who is part of the party’s working committee, claimed that big corporates are scared of donating to the Congress because of the “fear of probe agencies”.Prof Manisha Priyam, Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Professor, Monash University, who specialises in development and politics, said businesses funding politics had always been the reality from the time of the Indian independence movement. “I think the bigger issues are whether it’s on the books or it’s white money. The second issue was a lack of transparency in electoral bonds that the court struck down. I think at this point of time, the real critique is that a lot of it disproportionately goes to the BJP, which is the ruling party,” she said.