The Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool Congress, and the Congress are among the top three political parties that benefitted from the electoral bonds, according to data uploaded by the Election Commission on its website on Thursday. The data on electoral bonds was made public after the State Bank of India, following the Supreme Court’s order, submitted it to the election body.
According to the data, the BJP received funding of over ₹6,061 crore via electoral bonds, while the TMC got ₹1,610 crore. The Congress received ₹1,422 crore through those bonds.
Following close behind is the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with a total of ₹1,215 crore in funds though the electoral bonds. The Biju Janta Dal (BJD) got a funding of ₹776 crore.
Apart from these political parties, the other recipients of the electoral bond fund are All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSR Congress), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Janata Dal (United)(JDU), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), SP (Samajwadi Party), and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Earlier, the SBI had said that the ruling BJP encashed the highest value of bonds—close to half the total (47%, or ₹6,060 crore). This was followed by the All India Trinamool Congress, whose value of encashment stands at ₹1,609 crore, or a share of 13%, and Congress ( ₹1,421 crore, 11%).
The SBI had said it had issued bonds worth ₹16,518 crore in 30 tranches between April 2019 and February 15, 2024.
The list of bond purchases has entries until January 11, 2024, while the list of bond encashments has entries until January 24, 2024—likely the reason why the totals do not match with the one given by the SBI.
The data also showed that big companies such as Piramal Enterprises, Megha Engineering, and Grasim Industries have donated to political parties through these bonds. Other companies such as PVR, Sula Wine, Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, Keventer, Welspun, and Sun Pharma have also bought the electoral bonds.
Bharti Airtel, Torrent Power, DLF Commercial Developers, and Vedanta Ltd also made it to the list of top donors to political parties.
Earlier today, the Election Commission said that it had, in compliance with the apex court’s directions, uploaded the data on electoral bonds on its website as received from the SBI on “as is where is basis”.
The Supreme Court, last month, asked the SBI to submit the data to the ECI, while it deemed the electoral bonds as ‘unconstitutional’.
“The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data on electoral bonds on its website as received from SBI on ‘as is where is basis’. The data as received from SBI can be accessed at this URL: https://eci.gov.in/candidate-politicalparty,” the poll panel said.
They further added that the Election Commission has “consistently and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency, a position reflected in the proceedings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and noted in the order also”.
(With agency inputs)
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Published: 14 Mar 2024, 09:20 PM IST