Congress donations plunge 75% to Rs 131 cr, lowest in 3 years

NEW DELHI: Contributions received by the Congress in excess of Rs 20,000 totalled Rs 130.7 crore in 2025-26, which is barely one-fourth of its Rs 517.4 crore donation receipts in 2024-25. As per the 2025-26 contribution report of the Congress filed with EC, Prudent Electoral Trust contributed 19% of Congress's total donation kitty in the relevant year. In 2024-25, Prudent had accounted for 41.8% of contributions received by Congress. Prudent is the only electoral trust through which donations, largely corporate, were routed to Congress last year. At Rs 25 crore, the trust's contributions to the party, however, were only 11.5% of the Rs 216 crore funds it had channelled to the party in 2024-25. The steep 75% decline in Congress's total contributions in excess of Rs 20,000, compared with 2024-25, could be due to several factors. Given that 2024-25 was the general election year, a marked rise (84% as compared to 2023-24) in contributions to the main opposition party was on expected lines. What is interesting though is that the Rs 130.7 crore contribution receipts in 2025-26 are nearly 53% less than the amount it had received even in 2023-24. The steep decline was witnessed despite 2025-26 being the year of Bihar assembly elections and the run-up to elections in Assam, Keralam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry held in April 2026. The Congress audit report for 2025-26, which is not available yet, will throw light on the party's other sources of funding. In 2024-25, Congress's collection from the issuance and sale of coupons was over Rs 350 crore.

Among the key contributors last year, other than Prudent, were Star Cement Ltd (Rs 5 crore), Sajjan Bhajanka (Rs 4 crore), Afnan Constructions (Rs 3 crore), Prem Kumar Bhajanka (Rs 2 crore) and IPSUM Proadvisors and SMS Builders (Rs 1 crore each). Just nine contributions of Rs 1 crore or more accounted for Rs 43 crore, or nearly one-third of the party's total receipts. In comparison, 1,321 contributions of Rs 5 lakh or less together added up to Rs 37.2 crore, accounting for just 28.5% of the total. The median contribution among the 1,735 entries was Rs 3 lakh, highlighting how a relatively small number of large donations accounted for a substantial share of the party's funding.