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A day before the Supreme Court-fixed deadline, the Election Commission of India (ECI), on Thursday evening, released data on electoral bonds on its official website - www.eci.gov.in .
The apex court had given the ECI time till 5 pm on March 15 to upload, or make public, the data on its website.
The State Bank of India (SBI) Tuesday evening submitted to the ECI the details of entities, which had purchased the now-scrapped electoral bonds and political parties which received them.
Which parties got highest contributions?
As per the data, the BJP received the highest contributions through the electoral bonds amounting to Rs 6,566 crore or 54.77 per cent, followed by the Congress with Rs 1,123 crore or 9.37 per cent, Trinamool Congress Rs 1,092 crore or 9.11 per cent.
Which parties redeemed electoral bonds?
The ECI has released the data in two parts – one containing the name of the purchaser and the denomination of the bonds, and the other has information on the denomination of bonds encashed by various political parties.
As per the data, the parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party.
The two data sets run into more than hundreds of pages.
Who are top buyers of electoral bonds?
The SBI has issued electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the inception of the scheme in 2018.
Impact Shorts
View AllAs per a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a total of 28,030 electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore were sold between March 2018 and January 2024.
While most of the bonds were 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’.
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Future Gaming, which was probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March 2022, bought electoral bonds worth over Rs 1,350 crore under two different sets of companies.
Financial services firms like Bajaj Finance, Piramal Enterprises, and Edelweiss Group together purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 123 crore between April 1, 2019 and January 2024.
During the period, Piramal Enterprises, PHL Finvest Pvt Ltd and Piramal Capital and Housing Finance bought bonds worth Rs 60 crore.
Edelweiss Group, subscribed to Rs 40 crore bonds, while Bajaj Finance purchased bonds worth Rs 20 crore. Gold loan financier Muthoot Finance subscribed electoral bonds worth Rs 3 crore during the period.
Click here for a direct link to electoral bonds data on ECI website
Based on the details released by ECI, the following are the top buyers of now-scrapped electoral bonds along with the amount they purchased
Buyers Electoral Bonds purchased
- Future Gaming and Hotel Services Rs 1,368 crore
- Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd Rs 966 crore
- Qwik Supply Chain Private Ltd Rs 410 crore
- Vedanta Ltd Rs 400 crore
- Haldia Energy Ltd Rs 377 crore
- Bharati Group Rs 247 crore
- Essel Mining and Industries Ltd Rs 224 crore
- Western UP Power Transmission Rs 220 crore
- Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd Rs 194 crore
- Madanlal Ltd Rs 185 crore
- DLF Group Rs 170 crore
- Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital Rs 162 crore
- Utkal Alumina International Rs 145.3 crore
- Jindal Steel and Power Ltd Rs 123 crore
- Birla Carbon India Rs 105 crore
- Rungta Sons Rs 100 crore
- Dr Reddy’s Rs 80 crore
- Piramal Enterprises Group Rs 60 crore
- Navyuga Engineering Rs 55 crore
- Shirdi Sai Electricals Rs 40 crore
- Edelweiss Group Rs 40 crore
- Cipla Ltd Rs 39.2 crore
- Lakshmi Niwas Mittal Rs 35 crore
- Grasim Industries Rs 33 crore
- Jindal Stainless Rs 30 crore
- Bajaj Auto Rs 25 crore
- Sun Pharma Laboratories Rs 25 crore
- Mankind Pharma Rs 24 crore
- Bajaj Finance Rs 20 crore
- Maruti Suzuki India Rs 20 crore
- Ultratech Rs 15 crore
- TVS Motors Rs 10 crore
Individuals who bought electoral bonds?
According to the data by SBI, which is now available on the ECI website, besides Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, individuals who donated through electoral bonds included Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Varun Gupta, B K Goenka, Jainendra Shah and one person going by only the first name of Monika.
Ghaziabad-based Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital purchased 162 bonds, mostly of Rs 1 crore each.
Bajaj Auto bought bonds worth Rs 18 crore, Bajaj Finance Rs 20 crore, three IndiGo firms Rs 36 crore, Spicejet Rs 65 lakh, and Rahul Bhatia of IndiGo bought bonds worth Rs 20 crore.
Mumbai-based Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd bought bonds worth Rs 410 crore and Haldia Energy Rs 377 crore.