The Bhar­atiya Janata Party (BJP) received ₹259.08 crore as dona­tions through elect­oral trust in 2022-2023, account­ing for 70.69% of all dona­tions made through the medium, accord­ing to an ana­lysis of the Asso­ci­ation for Demo­cratic Reforms.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) received the second highest elect­oral trust dona­tions at ₹90 crore, 24.56% of elect­oral trust dona­tions, the ADR report said.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) received the second highest elect­oral trust dona­tions at ₹90 crore, 24.56% of elect­oral trust dona­tions, the ADR report said.

Elect­oral trusts are trusts set up by com­pan­ies with the object­ive to dis­trib­ute the con­tri­bu­tions received from other com­pan­ies and indi­vidu­als to the polit­ical parties.

They must donate 95% of con­tri­bu­tions received in a fin­an­cial year to polit­ical parties registered under the Rep­res­ent­a­tion of the People Act, 1951. The names of elect­oral trusts, cur­rently, do not indic­ate the name of the com­pany/group of com­pan­ies which set up the trusts but list the com­pan­ies and indi­vidu­als who con­trib­ute to them. Unlike elect­oral bonds, where buy­ers of the bonds are anonym­ous, elect­oral trusts are more trans­par­ent as they man­date report­ing the con­trib­ut­ors.

Accord­ing to the ana­lysis, the YSR Con­gress received ₹16 crore, the Aam Aadmi Party ₹90 lakh and Con­gress ₹50 lakh as dona­tions through elect­oral trust.

Of the 13 elect­oral trusts that sub­mit­ted con­tri­bu­tion reports, only five — Prudent Elect­oral Trust, Samaj Elect­oral Trust Asso­ci­ation, Paribartan Elect­oral Trust, Tri­umph Elect­oral Trust and Ein­z­igartig Elect­oral Trust — declared con­tri­bu­tions from cor­por­ate houses and indi­vidu­als. Con­tri­bu­tions from these five elect­oral trusts were worth ₹366.495 crore.

Prudent dis­bursed 99.09% of the money it col­lec­ted, ₹363.15 crore, to four polit­ical parties --BJP (₹256.25 crore), BRS (₹90 crore), YSRCP (₹16 crore) and AAP (₹90 lakh).