Lingering opacity

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political funding in India had hit record highs, revealing just how much money drives modern elections.

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The BJP, unsurprisingly, led the pack. It saw donations surge by an incredible 87 per cent compared to the previous year. The party raked in Rs 3,967.14 crore in 2023–2024. But what’s interesting is the shift in how this money is coming in. For years, the BJP relied heavily on electoral bonds, a controversial system that allowed anonymous donations. In 2022–2023, these bonds made up 61 per cent of the party’s funding. This year, however, that figure dropped to 43 per cent. That’s not because the BJP rejected the bonds, but because the Supreme Court scrapped the scheme in February 2024, calling it unconstitutional. The court ruled that the anonymity of these donations violated the public’s right to know, essentially ending a system that many saw as a loophole for bigmoney influence in politics. While the BJP adjusted to this change, the Congress seemed to go all-in on electoral bonds during their final year of operation. The party saw its donations skyrocket by a staggering 320 per cent, jumping fro