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The Election Commission of India (ECI) has disclosed additional details regarding electoral bonds, including the amount redeemed per political party on March 17.
The ECI uploaded the data on its website, sourced in digitised form from the Supreme Court registry. Political parties submitted data on Electoral Bonds in sealed covers as per the Supreme Court’s interim order dated April 12, 2019, stated the poll panel.
According to the EC data, BJP cashed electoral bonds worth Rs 6,986.5 crore, with the highest amount of Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20. Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds, while Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore, ranking as the second-largest recipient after BJP. BRS stood as the fourth largest recipient, encashing bonds worth Rs 1,322 crore.
Other parties, such as BJD, YSR Congress, TDP, SP, Akali Dal, AIADMK, and National Conference, also received varying amounts through electoral bonds, as per the report.
The EC stated, “Data submitted by political parties was presented to the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In compliance with the Supreme Court’s order dated March 15, 2024, the Supreme Court registry returned physical copies along with digitised records on a pen drive, sealed. The Election Commission of India has now uploaded the digitized data from the Supreme Court registry on electoral bonds onto its website.”
Providing details after April 12, 2019, the report revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the largest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme, receiving Rs 6,061 crore in political donations over the last five years, as per data submitted by the State Bank of India (SBI) to the ECI on March 14.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThis constitutes 48 percent of all electoral bonds encashed by political parties since the beginning of 2019-20 until it was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court earlier in 2024. In all, 24 political parties received donations through electoral bonds over the last five years amounting to Rs 12,769 crore.
The SBI data showed that over the past five years, the largest political contributors have donated nearly Rs 6,000 crore through electoral bonds to various parties.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services, a lottery firm, topped the list, donating Rs 1,368 crore, followed by Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd with Rs 966 crore.
The information, disclosed by the poll panel, categorizes the recipients and donors separately without indicating any direct links between them.