Electoral trusts and companies in the manufacturing , power, oil,  mining, construction, exports/imports and real estate sectors are among those which made donations to the tune of Rs 921.95 crore constituting 91 per cent of the total contribution to political parties from known sources in India in 2019-20.  Of them, the ruling BJP got the major chunk of the donations worth Rs 720.407 crore from 2025 corporate donors. The Congress lagged far behind with Rs 133.04 crore from 154  donors while the NCP stood at third place with Rs 57.086 crore from 36 donors.

As per data compiled by the Association of for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Electoral Trusts were the biggest donors to the national parties, contributing a total amount of Rs 397.82 crore (a share of 43.15%).  The manufacturing sector was the second highest overall contributor, contributing a total amount of Rs 146.388 crore. With Rs 96.88 crore, the manufacturing sector was the second highest overall contributor in 2018-29.

BG Shirke Construction Technology Pvt. Ltd. , was the top donor to NCP in 2019-20. Besides, ITC Limited, Panchshil Corporate Park Pvt Ltd, Muthoot Finance Ltd, Kalyan Jewellers, Modern Road Makers Pvt Ltd were also among the top donors list.

The data showed that these national parties have received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 921.95 crore in 2019-20 (during which the 17th Lok Sabha elections were held); followed by Rs 881.26 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 573.18 crore in 2014-15 (during which the 16th Lok Sabha elections were held).

Corporate donations received in 2019-20 constituted 24.62 per cent of the total corporate donations received between 2012-13 and 2019-20. However, between 2012-13 and 2019-20, donations by corporates to national parties increased by 1,024 per cent, with a drop in the percentage of corporate donations in 2015-16.

A total of 309 donations through which national parties received Rs 10.555 cr do not have address details in the contribution form; Rs 13.91 crore was received from 144 donations, which do not have PAN details included in the contribution form while Rs 16.19 crore of the Rs 16.215 crore or 99.85 per cent of such donations were without PAN and address details belonged to the BJP.

Among the top corporate donors was Prudent Electoral Trust. It donated to two national parties, the BJP and INC, 38 times each, a total of Rs 247.75 crore, of which Rs 216.75 crore went to the BJP  in 2019-20.

During 2019-20, the BJP, INC, AITC and NCP received the maximum contributions from electoral trusts; the BJP received the highest, Rs 323.32 crore, followed by INC with Rs 71.00 crore, AITC with Rs 2.00 crore and NCP with Rs 1.50 crore.