Electoral Bond Data Reveals Startling Facts But Donor-Recipient Link Yet To Be Revealed

The Election Commission of India (ECI) published the electoral bond data on Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court of India (SCI)-fixed deadline, though the data does not include the serial numbers of the bonds, which are considered essential for linking donors with recipients. 

The two-set data that the ECI received from the State Bank of India (SBI) two days earlier has one set detailing who purchased bonds worth which amount on what date and the second set includes which party encashed bonds worth what amount on which date. 

Since the recipient parties had 15 days from the date of the bond’s purchase to encash them, the date of purchase and the date of encashing may not match. Without the serial number, connecting donors with recipients may not be easy and trigger many speculations. 

Overall, the data shows that the BJP has been the biggest recipient of funds, followed by West Bengal’s ruling party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress. 

Responding to the non-publication of the bond serial numbers, advocate Prashant Bhushan, one of the lawyers in the electoral bond case arguing against the scheme, wrote in a social media post that giving the serial number of the bonds, which is necessary for finding who gave bond to whom, “was implicit” in the apex court judgement. 

He also shared photos of the SBI’s affidavit in court to show how the top bank said this information is recorded with them, though in separate silos.

As of Thursday night, it seemed that some or all of the petitioners in the electoral bond case would bring this to the SCI’s attention, asking for the bond numbers. In a separate development, on Thursday itself, the ECI’s lawyer Amit Sharma in the electoral bond petitioned the court seeking modification of its order. 

Meanwhile, speculations went rife on social media platforms. Bhushan himself highlighted in a social media post that on April 11, 2023, Megha Engineering purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 100 Cr. While it could not be ascertained to which party this amount went, Bhushan highlighted that the same company got a Rs 14,400 Cr contract from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s government in Maharashtra. 

“Though SBI has hidden Bond numbers from the info, some of donors and parties match can be guessed. Most donations seem a quid pro quo,” Bhushan wrote. 

One of the most startling revelations was that Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore. They started purchasing bonds on October 21, 2020, starting with Rs 60 crore, and followed it up with another Rs 90 crore on October 27. Thereafter, in April 2021, when assembly elections were going on in five states, they purchased bonds worth another Rs 109 crore. Thereafter, they purchased bonds worth Rs 30 crore on July 7 and Rs 195 crore on October 5 in 2021. 

• In 2022, they purchased bonds worth Rs 100 crore on January 5, Rs 110 crore on January 6, Rs 100 crore on April 7, Rs 75 crore on July 6, Rs 105 crore on October 6 and Rs 10 crore on December 9. 

• In 2023, the bond purchase worths were Rs 20 crore on January 24, Rs 15 crore on January 15, Rs 3 crore on January 27, Rs 90 crore on April 5, Rs 60 crore on April 11, Rs 63 crore on July 6, Rs 65 crore on October 5 and Rs 5 crore on November 8. Their last purchase was in this year’s January 9, worth Rs 63 crore. 

This is not the first time that Future Gaming and Hotel Services’ name came up in connection with political funding. Earlier, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), one of the petitioners against the scheme in the apex court, had shown that the Prudent Electoral Trust, which disburses the lion’s share of funding to the BJP, received Rs 100 crore from the Future Gaming and Hotel Services in 2020-21 and it was more than one-third of the Trust’s total receipt of Rs 245.72 crore political funding through corporates. The Trust gave Rs 209 crore to the BJP. 

The Chennai-based company, owned by Santiago Martin who is often referred to as the ‘lottery king’, is the sole distributor of ‘paper lottery’ organised by the states of Sikkim and Nagaland. It is facing corruption charges related to money laundering, first started by the Kolkata Police but later being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of the Union government.  

Among other major donors are Qwik Supply Chain Private Ltd, which purchased bonds worth Rs 409 crore. This company based in Maharashtra’s Thane area has Tapas Mitra as the whole-time director. Mitra also holds directorship of several Reliance group of companies, Reliance Eros Productions Llp, Reliance Polyester Private Limited, Reliance Oil And Petroleum Private Limited, Reliance Photo Films Private Limited, Reliance Group Support Services Private Limited, Reliance First Private Limited and Reliance Fire Brigade Services Private Limited. 

Mitra’s LinkedIn profile says he joined the Reliance group in 2004 and working as the head of accounts (consolidation) for the Group Companies, at the level of Vice President, since 2010. The profile says he currently heads accounts and commercial functions of a number of companies in the group, including subsidiary, associate, and joint-venture companies.

The West Bengal-based Haldia Energy Limited, a group company of the flagship RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, purchased bands worth Rs 376 crore between May 2019 and January 24, of which Rs 115 crore was purchased in 2023 and Rs 85 crore in 2022.  

The Gujarat-based Torrent group of Sudhir and Samir Mehta purchased bonds over Rs 150 crore, of which bonds worth Rs 50 crore were purchased on January 9 and 10, 2024.  

Mining companies Essel and Vedanta are among other major contributors. 

The Hyderabad-based Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital purchased bonds worth Rs 162 crore – among them Rs 50 crore on April 4 and Rs 30 crore on April 6, 2022, and Rs 25 crore on October 11, 2023. The Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd, which hit the headlines in 2023 for being the builder of the Silkiyara tunnel in Uttarakhand that collapsed, leaving 27 workers, trapped, had purchased bonds worth Rs 55 crore – Rs 30 crore on April 18, 2019, Rs 15 crore on October 10, 2019, and Rs 10 crore on October 10, 2022. 

On Friday, as the petitioners approached the Supreme Court again, the court rapped SBI over not furnishing the complete data, which it had to. The top court has ordered the bank to disclose the electoral bond numbers, an essential link with which the donors can be connected with recipients.

The serial numbers will be a step in the direction of people getting conclusive evidence on who funded whom – information that the apex court had held essential for electors while delivering its landmark judgement scrapping the anonymous political funding scheme.