The Congress party suffered its sharpest drop in political donations in a decade, watching its disclosed high-value contributions plunge nearly 75 per cent to ₹130.69 crore in the 2025-26 financial year.
Disclosures filed with the Election Commission of India show the opposition party collected ₹517.39 crore in donations above ₹20,000 during 2024-25. That income evaporated over the following twelve months. The party has not weathered a funding contraction of this scale since 2015-16, when disclosed receipts dropped to ₹141.46 crore following an 86 per cent plunge in the immediate aftermath of its 2014 general election defeat. The coffers dried up fast.
A collapse in institutional backing drove the slump. The Prudent Electoral Trust—the sole corporate electoral trust listed in the party's latest filing—slashed its contribution to ₹25 crore in 2025-26, down from ₹216.34 crore the prior year. That single donor retrenchment represents an 88 per cent wipeout in trust capital for the party. Outside the trust, Star Cement surfaced as the largest corporate backer with ₹5 crore, while industrialist Sajjan Bhajanka contributed ₹4 crore and Prem Kumar Bhajanka provided ₹2 crore.
BJP funding data underscores the scale of the financial imbalance facing the opposition. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party secured ₹6,074.02 crore in donations exceeding ₹20,000 in 2024-25—nearly 12 times the Congress party's haul that year. The BJP has systematically out-earned the Congress in declared contributions across each of the past 12 financial years examined by poll authorities. Disclosures for the BJP's 2025-26 receipts remain pending public release by the Election Commission.
| Financial Year | Declared Congress Donations (>₹20,000) | Prudent Electoral Trust Contribution | Key Context |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | ₹281.48 crore | Baseline funding | Pre-general election funding push |
| 2024-25 | ₹517.39 crore | ₹216.34 crore | Lok Sabha election surge |
| 2025-26 | ₹130.69 crore | ₹25.00 crore | 75% overall contraction |
Bare donation tallies capture only one slice of the party's operating budget. Disclosed collections fell even lower during non-election years, including ₹74.52 crore in 2020-21, ₹95.46 crore in 2021-22, and ₹79.92 crore in 2022-23. Those earlier receipts, however, excluded unmapped electoral bond injections that operated before judicial cancellation. Factoring in bond redemptions from prior cycles, the 2025-26 collection marks the party's leanest declared capital intake since 2020-21.
Yet the contribution report omits micro-donations, coupon sales, membership dues, and bank interest. Coupon drives alone brought Congress ₹350.12 crore in 2024-25. The full extent of the party's operational solvency will emerge once the Election Commission uploads its complete, certified annual audited balance sheet for 2025-26.