Following a decision from the highest court to make the data public, the Election Commission of India published data on electoral bonds that it had received from political parties in sealed covers and delivered to the Supreme Court. It is thought that these particulars relate to the time frame before April 12, 2019.
The election commission’s data revealed that Future Gaming and Hotel Services, the top buyer of electoral bonds, gave ₹509 crore to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, via the now-scrapped payment mode, even though the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre received the most money through these bonds since they were introduced in 2018.
The information is included in the data dump that the European Commission released on the orders of the Supreme Court, which includes information on 523 recognised and unrecognised political parties. This came after another dataset that the poll panel released the previous week, which was based on data that the State Bank of India (SBI), the only bank permitted to sell and redeem electoral bonds, had provided.
Surveillance by the Enforcement Directorate revealed that Future Gaming, connected to Santiago Martin, was responsible for more than 77% of the ₹656.5 crore electoral bond proceeds revealed by the DMK.
The recipients of the remaining ₹859 crore bonds that Future Gaming acquired are still unknown since the majority of political parties do not provide complete donor information.
With ₹6,986.5 crore received after the introduction of electoral bonds in 2018, the BJP is the largest recipient of funds.
According to the most recent data from the poll commission, the West Bengal Trinamool Congress comes in second with ₹1,397 crore, followed by the Congress with ₹1,334 crore and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi with ₹1,322 crore.
With ₹944.5 crore, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Odisha comes in fifth place. The DMK comes in second with ₹656.5 crore, while the YSR Congress of Andhra Pradesh comes in third with around ₹442.8 crore.
Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party revealed receipt of ₹10.84 crore in donations overall, which included 10 bonds valued at ₹10 crore that were sent “by post” and accepted anonymously.
While the DMK has revealed donor identities, major parties such as the BJP, Congress, and TMC have not fully disclosed this information to the EC, now made public due to a Supreme Court directive.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) redeemed bonds worth ₹181.35 crore, while Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), ₹56 crore, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, ₹15.5 crore, ₹14.05 crore, Akali Dal, ₹7.26 crore, AIADMK, ₹6.05 crore, National Conference (NC) ₹50 lakh from the Bharti Group, and Sikkim Democratic Front ₹50 lakh were among the bonds redeemed.
AAP did not give a total amount donated; nevertheless, SBI’s records show that it was given ₹65.45 crore. The total amount collected by AAP is ₹69 crore after deducting an additional ₹3.55 crore that was received after registering with the EC.
Scan copies of political parties’ hundreds of pages of disclosures are included in the most recent data collection made public by the European Commission.
