Election Commission releases fresh electoral bonds data, includes unique alphanumeric code

In compliance with the Supreme Court’s directives, the Election Commission released all of the electoral bond data that the State Bank of India had provided on Thursday. Alpha-numeric digits from the fresh data can be used to link the bond buyers with the political parties which cashed them.

Bond numbers are also included in the data so that donors and the political party they gave to can be matched.

“In compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions, SBI has provided data pertaining to electoral bonds to ECI today i.e. March 21, 2024. The ECI has uploaded it on its website as received from SBI on an ‘as is where is basis’,” the poll panel said in a statement on Thursday.

The two sets of data cover electoral bonds purchased and redeemed from April 2019 until January 2024. There are 552 pages detailing political party redemptions and 386 pages detailing donor redemptions.

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Following the submission of the information by the State Bank of India earlier in the day in accordance with a Supreme Court directive, the poll panel made the new data available on its website.

The final four digits of the account number, prefix, denomination, pay branch code, pay teller, serial number, date of encashment, name of the political party, and bond number are among the specifics of redemption by political parties.

The bonds were first issued in March 2018 and were only allowed to be sold by the State Bank of India before the Supreme Court of India declared them to be worthless last month.

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The Supreme Court ordered SBI to make public all election bond information, including the unique identifying code, by March 21. This directive was issued on Monday. After receiving the information from the SBI, it then requested that the Election Commission upload the data.

The SBI chairman stated that the “prefix and the bond number is in fact the alphanumeric number” in an affidavit presented to the Supreme Court.