AAP's 2025-26 donations fall 68% to ₹12.10 crore; two donors give 83%
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has disclosed ₹12.10 crore in contributions for the financial year 2025-26, about 68% less than the ₹38.10 crore it reported a year earlier. Two donors alone accounted for nearly 83% of the total.
According to the party's contribution report filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Prudent Electoral Trust and Trident Limited gave ₹5 crore each. Trident was founded by Rajinder Gupta, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha on an AAP ticket in October 2025. The remaining contributions added up to about ₹2.10 crore, listed across 1,202 numbered entries.
The ₹5-crore cheque from Trident was dated January 9, 2026, at a time when Mr. Gupta was still with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. He later joined the BJP in April.
Prudent has been a major donor to the AAP in earlier years as well. In 2024-25, it gave the party ₹16.40 crore, the largest single contribution that year. The party's disclosed contributions have moved sharply: from ₹11.06 crore in 2023-24 to ₹38.10 crore in 2024-25, and now ₹12.10 crore in 2025-26.
The latest filing covers the first full financial year since the AAP lost power in Delhi in February 2025. The party continues to govern Punjab, where Trident is based.
Several smaller contributions are listed against senior party figures. Party chief Arvind Kejriwal appears against three contributions of ₹10,000 each. Former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi is listed against 12 payments of ₹3,500 each, totalling ₹42,000. Punjab AAP president Aman Arora is listed against 12 payments of ₹10,000 each, totalling ₹1.20 lakh.
Ashutosh Ranka, a former AAP spokesperson who is now co-convener of the Cockroach Janta Party, donated ₹21,100 to the AAP. The contribution was made before he took up his current role.
Reports filed by three other regional parties also show how their disclosed contributions have changed since the 2024 assembly elections.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which returned to power in Andhra Pradesh, reported ₹58.25 crore for 2025-26, down from ₹83.03 crore the previous year. Prudent Electoral Trust gave it ₹45 crore, up from ₹40 crore in 2024-25.
The YSR Congress Party, which was ousted from power by the TDP, reported ₹24.31 crore, a sharp fall from about ₹140.04 crore in 2024-25. Its largest listed donor was Goodwood Sanctuary Private Limited, against ₹10 crore.
The Biju Janata Dal, which lost power in Odisha in 2024, listed no contribution above ₹20,000 in its latest report. It had disclosed ₹60 crore in 2024-25, all received in April and May 2024, before the election results were declared. The party had filed nil reports for such contributions in 2022-23 and 2023-24, when electoral bonds were still in use.
Under ECI rules, parties must identify donors whose contributions exceed ₹20,000 in a financial year. Where an electoral trust is the donor, the companies that contributed to the trust are not named in the party's report.
These contribution reports do not show a party's full annual income, which is reported separately in its audited accounts.
