The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received Rs 158 crore from leading non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) through electoral bonds purchased and encashed between April 12, 2019, and January 11, 2024, as per data released by the Election Commission of India on March 21.
The All-India Trinamool Congress received Rs 89 lakh, and the All-India Congress Committee got Rs 1 crore, the data showed.
The NBFCs included Bajaj Finance, Muthoot Finance, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance, Piramal Enterprises, ECL Finance and Infina Finance. Among the biggest NBFC donors of the BJP were Infina Finance and Piramal Enterprises, which purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 60 crore and Rs 35 crore, respectively.
Also read: ECI data: Coimbatore lottery tycoon Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming emerges as big donor to TMC, DMK
The numbers
As per the data, Bajaj Finance purchased bonds worth Rs 20 crore on April 18, 2019, which were encashed by the BJP on April 23, 2019.
Muthoot Finance purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 3 crore on April 16, 2019, and all the bonds were encashed by the BJP on April 25, 2019.
Renuka Investment and Finance purchased bonds worth Rs 5 crore, which were encashed by the BJP.
The BJP also encashed all bonds of Piramal Capital & Housing Finance worth Rs 10 crore, Piramal Enterprises bonds worth Rs 10 crore and Rs 25 crore, three tranches of bonds from Infina Finance worth Rs 60 crore and Authum Investment and Infrastructure bonds worth Rs 25 crore.
Edelweiss Housing Finance’s electoral bonds purchased on May 6, 2019, worth Rs 1 crore were encashed by the President, All India Congress Committee, on May 13, 2019. All India Trinamool Congress encashed two tranches of bonds worth Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh of Pluto Finance, the data showed.
Other beneficiaries
Aditya Birla group, Bajaj group, and Bajaj Finserv donated Rs 11 crore via electoral bonds to the Nationalist Congress Party, Aam Aadmi Party, and Janata Dal (Secular) till May 2019, according to data published by the ECI on its website.
Aditya Birla group donated Rs 50 lakh on April 5, 2019, to JDS and the Bajaj group donated Rs 3 crore to AAP till May 29, 2019, according to the data. Bajaj Finserv donated Rs 50 lakh on March 12, 2019, and Rs 7 crore on March 13, 2019, to the NCP.
All these donations were made close to or during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which were held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, the data showed.
On March 21, the ECI published detailed data of the electoral bonds provided by the State Bank of India, including the alphanumeric number on each bond that can link the donor with the recipient political party. On March 18, the top court told SBI to stop being selective and make a complete disclosure of all details related to electoral bonds by March 21.
The top court added that the details must include the unique bond numbers that would match the buyers with the recipient political parties. The published list contains the names of prominent companies and business groups including Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta, Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula, Welspun and Sun Pharmaceuticals.
Also read: Electoral bonds: Subsidiary of BJP's top donor is Congress' second-biggest funder
SBI’s affidavit
SBI submitted a compliance affidavit in the Supreme Court, saying all details on electoral bonds including the unique alphanumeric numbers have been given to the ECI. SBI clarified that it has not excluded any detail, according to the affidavit.
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