The details of electoral bonds (EB) were made public by the Election Commission on Thursday, revealing the list of entities which purchased EBs to make political donations to parties.
In the list, that includes bigwigs of the corporate world like Bharti Airtel and DLF, possibly the biggest donor is a little-known lottery company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services.
The other better known names include steel tycoon Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, DLF, PVR, Birlas, Bajajs, Jindals, Spicejet, IndiGo and the Goenkas.
Electoral Bonds Top Donors
Future Gaming and Hotel Services purchased possibly the highest amount of bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore, followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd at Rs 966 crore. Future Gaming was probed by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2022.
Here are the top donors of electoral bonds
Future Gaming and Hotel Services: Rs 1,368 crore
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd: Rs 966
Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd: Rs 410
Vedanta Ltd: Rs 398
Haldia Energy: Rs 377 crore
Bharti Group: Rs 246 crore
Essel Mining & Industries Ltd - Rs 224 crore
Western UP Power Transmission Company Ltd - Rs 220 crore
Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd - Rs 195 crore
Madanlal Ltd - Rs 185 crore
DLF Group - Rs 170 crore
Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital - Rs 162 crore
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The above list of top donors has been cited in multiple reports, Outlook India could not independently verify the accuracy of the amount.
Which Party Received Highest Donations
Even though it is already known that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest amount of donation of over Rs 6,000 crore, followed by the Congress party, the data only disclosed the amount donated by each entity or individual and not who donated to which party.
While most of the bonds have been issued in the name of political parties, the donations made to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were made in the name of 'President, All India Congress Committee' and 'Adyaksha Samajvadi Party'.
Apart from BJP and Congress, the parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JD-S, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, the Samajwadi Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, BJD, Goa Forward Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, JMM, Sikkim Democratic Front, and the Jana Sena Party.
SBI Shares Electoral Bond Data With EC
Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India (SBI), which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, had shared the data with the poll panel on March 12 after its plea for an extension of time to disclose data was rejected by the top court.
In a mega verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients.
The Supreme Court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm of March 15 to upload the data on its website.
The EC released the details on 'Disclosure of Electoral Bonds Submitted by SBI' in two parts -- one listing the buyers and the other listing the beneficiary parties -- on its website a day before the court-mandated deadline.
In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the SBI said on Wednesday that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.
According to the data uploaded by the poll panel, the buyers of electoral bonds included Spicejet, IndiGo, Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd., Apollo Tyres, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wines, Welspun, Sun Pharma, Vardhman Textiles, Jindal Group, Phillips Carbon Black Limited, CEAT tyres, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ITC, Kaypee Enterprises, Cipla, and Ultratech Cement.
(With PTI inputs)
