Congress donations crash 75 percent as BJP out-raises opposition nearly 12 to 1
India's Congress party reported a 75 percent fall in large donations to Rs 130.69 crore in 2025-26, while the BJP collected Rs 6,074.02 crore in 2024-25, nearly 12 times the Congress figure.
Story So Far
India's Congress party has reported a 75 percent collapse in large donations, the steepest fall in a decade, in figures that underline how far the opposition's funding has fallen behind the ruling BJP.
Contribution reports filed with the Election Commission show Congress received Rs 130.69 crore in donations above Rs 20,000 in 2025-26, down from Rs 517.39 crore in 2024-25, according to PTI. The BJP collected Rs 6,074.02 crore in large donations in 2024-25, nearly 12 times the Congress figure for the same period.
The fall was driven largely by one donor: the Prudent Electoral Trust's contribution to Congress dropped from Rs 216.34 crore to Rs 25 crore, a decline of nearly 88 percent, and it was the only electoral trust named in the party's latest report. Other named donors included Star Cement at Rs 5 crore. The BJP's contribution report for 2025-26 has not yet been made public.
The figures come from the parties' own contribution reports filed with the Election Commission, as examined by PTI, so the numbers themselves are a matter of record rather than estimate. Two qualifications matter. First, the comparison year matters: 2024-25 coincided with the Lok Sabha elections, when Congress donations had risen from Rs 281.48 crore, so part of the fall is the absence of an election year. Second, contribution reports are not total income: they exclude small donations, membership subscriptions and interest, and Congress's audited accounts for 2025-26 have not yet been uploaded. Even so, PTI's analysis notes that Congress's 2025-26 donations are its lowest since 2020-21 even when electoral-bond receipts are counted.
Money is not the whole of a campaign, but the gap shapes what Congress can do: 128 MPs in Parliament and governments in six states, funded by a fraction of what the BJP raises. The figures will feed into the debate over whether the party can rebuild its organisation, with state elections ahead, including Uttar Pradesh in 2027. The next data point will be the BJP's own 2025-26 report, when the Election Commission publishes it, and then Congress's audited accounts, the first full picture of whether the funding crunch is a one-year dip or a structural problem.