EC reveals new details on purchase of electoral bonds

The information on "Disclosure of Electoral Bonds submitted by SBI" has been made public by the poll panel in two sections. First section reveals how much each political party received, the second reveals the names of donors.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has released further information regarding the electoral bonds, including information on the amount redeemed per political party on March 17.

The ECI has uploaded the data on its website, which it received in digitised form from the registry of the Supreme Court. Political parties had filed data on Electoral Bonds in sealed covers as directed by the Supreme Court's interim order dated April 12, 2019, the poll panel said in a statement.

According to EC data, BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore; maximum Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20 and Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds. Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds, making it the second largest recipient after BJP. BRS was the fourth largest recipient through electoral bonds, encashed bonds worth Rs 1,322 crore.

BJD encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 944.5 crore, YSR Congress Rs 442.8 crore, TDP Rs 181.35 crore, SP Rs 14.05 crore, Akali Dal Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore, National Conference Rs 50 lakh, the report added.

"Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," EC said.

Details about electoral bonds after April 12, 2019 are as follows:Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was by far the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme, receiving Rs 6,061 crore as political donations in the last five years, according to data submitted by the State Bank of India (SBI) to the Election Commission of India of March 14. This amounts to 48 percent of all electoral bonds encashed by political parties since the start of 2019-20 and before it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court earlier in 2024.

Also Read: Electoral bonds: BJP top receiver at Rs 6,061 crore, TMC 2nd with Rs 1,610 crore

Based on data provided by the SBI to EC on March 14, the largest political contributors over the last five years have given parties almost Rs 6,000 crore through electoral bonds.

In all, 24 political parties received donations through electoral bonds over the last five years amounting to Rs 12,769 crore.

Topping the list is lottery firm Future Gaming and Hotel Services, which donated Rs 1,368 crore – a stunning 11 percent of all electoral bonds that were bought in the country. In second spot is Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd with Rs 966 crore.

Also Read: Electoral bonds: From lottery to milkshake firms, top 20 donors gave nearly Rs 6,000 crore

The information on "Disclosure of Electoral Bonds submitted by SBI" has been made public by the poll panel in two sections. The list of political parties and the amount each has received is included in the first section. The names of all the businesses that have bought the bonds are listed in the second. The information, however, does not indicate a connection between the donors and the receivers.

Also Read: Electoral bonds: Here are the top 10 companies that have donated to political parties