Electoral bonds: Subsidiary of BJP's top donor is Congress' second-biggest funder

This latest data release from the ECI includes the unique alphanumeric number on the bonds, that allows establishing the the identity of the donor and the recipient.

While Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) tops the list of donors for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through the electoral bond route, one of its subsidiaries — Western UP Power Transmission — is the second-biggest donor for the main opposition party, the Congress, according to an updated data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 21.

ECI uploads electoral bonds data provided by SBI, including unique numbers

The top donor for the Congress was miner Vedanta Ltd (Rs 125 crore). While MEIL donated Rs 584 crore to the BJP, the second-biggest donor to the ruling party was Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd with Rs 375 crore.

The BJP received Rs 230.2 crore from Vedanta, making it the third-largest donor for the ruling party.

The ECI data includes the unique alphanumeric number on bonds that establishes the identity of the donor and the recipient.

Out of the Rs 6,061 crore the BJP received through electoral bonds, the top two -- MEIL and Qwik Supply Chain -- account for nearly 16 percent of the total funding garnered by the party.

Mamata Banerjee's TMC received more than half of its total donations from electoral bonds, worth Rs 1,610 crore from Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR (Rs 544 crore) and Bengal-based Haldia Energy (Rs 281 crore).

MEIL group entities include publicly traded Olectra Greentech. This group, along with other investors, also owns Associated Broadcasting Co. Pvt. Ltd (ABCL), the umbrella company for a portfolio of regional news channels under the brand name of TV9.

Overall, the BJP has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme, accounting for 47.5 percent of the total funding since April 2019, followed by the TMC, which is a distant second at 12.6 percent. The Congress received Rs 1,422 crore from poll bonds.

In a major verdict, the Supreme Court on February 15 struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional and instructed State Bank of India to furnish purchaser details to the Election Commission.