The Election Commission of India uploaded the data on electoral bonds on its website on Thursday as received from SBI following a Supreme Court order. The ECI was instructed to publish the data by March 13. The poll panel issued a press note providing the link to access the data provided by SBI.
"In compliance with the Hon'ble Supreme Court's directions, as contained in its orders dated February 15 and March 11, 2024 (in the matter of WPC NO.880 of 2017), the State Bank of India (SBI) provided the data pertaining to the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 12, 2024," the press note stated.
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Earlier, while scrapping the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2018, the apex court had directed SBI to provide the ECI with the data by March 6. However, on March 4, the bank moved the court seeking additional time until June 30, stating that the task of matching each donation to the party was time-consuming.
The court clarified on Monday that it had not instructed the matching exercise to be done and directed the bank to send the name of the buyer, the date and denomination of every bond sold, and the name of the party, date of redemption, and denomination of every bond redeemed from April 12, 2019, onwards to the ECI by the close of business hours on Tuesday.
SBI informed the Supreme Court that a total of 22,217 bonds were purchased during the period from April 1, 2019, till February 15, 2024. The total amount donated under the scheme from April 1, 2019, to February 15, 2024, was Rs 12,156 crore, of which almost half came from the top 20 donors alone, as per the data provided by SBI to the ECI.
Among the largest contributors through the Electoral Bond scheme are Vedanta Ltd, promoted by Anil Agarwal, Bharti Airtel, promoted by Sunil Mittal, Bajaj Auto Ltd, and DLF Ltd. Notably, the data lacks the unique bond number against each purchase and encashment, which would have revealed who donated how much to political parties.
The top donor is Future Gaming, a lottery company owned by Chennai-based Santiago Martin, which purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore. This is followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, promoted by PP Reddy and PV Krishna Reddy, which bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore. At number 3 is Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd with Rs 410 crore in bond purchases.
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Three companies from West Bengal, Keventer Food Park Infra Ltd, MKG Enterprises Ltd, and Madanlal Ltd, which are related, bought bonds worth Rs 578 crore. Several companies that purchased bonds have faced action from investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation or have faced income tax raids or surveys.
The BJP encashed bonds worth Rs 6,061 crore, or over 47% of the total issued, while Trinamool Congress redeemed Rs 1,609 crore, and Congress Rs 1,421 crore.
An electoral bond is an instrument in the nature of a promissory note or bearer bond which can be purchased by any individual, company, firm, or association of persons provided the person or body is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. The bonds are issued specifically for the purpose of contributing funds to political parties.