BJP cashed electoral bonds worth Rs 6986 crore
On Sunday (March 17), the very next day after the announcement of the dates of Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Election Commission has uploaded the data of latest information received on electoral bonds from State Bank of India (SBI) on the orders of the Supreme Court on its website. This data was handed over to the Supreme Court by the Commission in a sealed envelope. The court later asked the commission to make this data public. BJP encashed electoral bonds worth a total of Rs 6,986.5 crore and the party has received the highest electoral donation of Rs 2,555 crore in 2019-20.
According to news agency PTI, it is believed that these details relate to the period before April 12, 2019. The Commission said in a statement that the political parties had filed the data related to electoral bonds in a sealed cover as per the interim order of the Supreme Court dated April 12, 2019.
DMK received donations worth Rs 509 crore
At the same time, ‘Future Gaming and Hotel Services’, the top buyer of the now canceled electoral bonds, donated Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu’s ruling party DMK through it.
BJP received the highest amount of Rs 6,986.5 crore through the electoral bond scheme since its implementation in 2018, followed by West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (Rs 1,397 crore), Congress (Rs 1,334 crore) ) and BRS (Rs 1,322 crore).
According to the data, Odisha’s ruling party BJD received Rs 944.5 crore. After this, DMK redeemed bonds worth Rs 656.5 crore and Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party YSR Congress redeemed bonds worth about Rs 442.8 crore.
JD(S) received bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second largest buyer of electoral bonds.
‘Future Gaming is the largest buyer of electoral bonds’
‘Lottery king’ Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming was the biggest buyer of electoral bonds with Rs 1,368 crore, of which about 37 per cent went to the DMK. Other major donors to DMK include Megha Engineering with Rs 105 crore, India Cements with Rs 14 crore and Sun TV with Rs 100 crore.
Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds and is the second largest recipient after BJP.
These parties also encashed electoral bonds worth crores of rupees
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) received Rs 181.35 crore, Shiv Sena Rs 60.4 crore, RJD Rs 56 crore, Samajwadi Party received Rs 14.05 crore through electoral bonds. The data said that Akali Dal encashed bonds worth Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore, National Conference encashed bonds worth Rs 50 lakh.
CPI(M) had announced that it will not receive funds through electoral bonds, while AIMIM and BSP have informed that they will not receive any amount.
Data was deposited in the Supreme Court registry
The Commission said, ‘The data received from political parties was submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope. Acting on the apex court’s order dated March 15, 2024, the court registry returned the physical copies along with the digital records in a pen drive in a sealed cover. The Commission has today uploaded the data received in digital form from the Supreme Court registry regarding electoral bonds on its website.
