Someone left Rs 10 crore at JDU’s doorstep, SP received bonds by post, 77% of DMK’s bonds were from the same company… Strange claims on electoral bonds.
The Election Commission has made public new information regarding electoral bonds on Sunday. The data tells how much money has been redeemed by which party from which company or person. However, most of the parties have not disclosed the names of the donors. Some parties have also made strange claims. For example, JDU says that it found an envelope in the office which contained bonds worth Rs 10 crore. SP also said the same thing. SP says that it received bonds worth Rs 10 crore through post. But it is not known who sent it. DMK has received 77% of the total donated bonds from a single company.
The data given by political parties to the Election Commission covers the period from the start of the scheme in 2018 to November 2023. According to the data, BJP received the maximum amount of Rs 6,986.5 crore through bonds. After that, West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress has received Rs 1,397 crore, Congress Rs 1,334 crore and Bharat Rashtra Samithi Rs 1,322 crore.
SP received election bonds worth Rs 10 crore through post
Samajwadi Party said that it has received 10 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each through anonymous post. All these 10 electoral bonds have been issued on the same date (May 7, 2019). During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, SP encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 10.84 crore. According to the Election Commission, SP has received bonds worth Rs 10 crore (92 percent of the total amount) through post from unknown donors.
Who donated to SP?
In the statement given to the Election Commission, SP said, it received 7 electoral bonds of Rs 1 lakh each from SK Traders, Gurgaon. Similarly, 3 bonds of Rs 10 lakh each from San Beverages Private Limited, one bond of Rs 1 lakh each from SK Trading Company, Delhi, one bond of Rs 10 lakh each from AK Traders, Delhi, and one bond of Rs 10 lakh each from KS Traders, Mohannagar. One bond of Rs. 100,000, 7 bonds of Rs. 1 lakh each from BS Traders, Jaipur, 5 bonds of Rs. 1 lakh each from AS Traders, Delhi, 5 bonds of Rs. 1 lakh each from BG Traders, Faridabad.
Don’t know who gave election donation of Rs 10 crore?
An interesting story has also come to light in the matter of electoral bonds received by Nitish Kumar’s party Janata Dal United in Bihar. JDU says that some unknown person has given an electoral bond of Rs 10 crore to the party. According to the then state general secretary of JDU, Naveen Arya, on April 3, 2019, an unknown person came to the party’s state office and gave a sealed envelope. When this envelope was opened, 10 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each were found in it. After which JDU opened an account in SBI main branch of Patna and encashed all these electoral bonds. The party also informed that two bonds worth Rs 1 crore each have been received from cement manufacturing company Shree Cement. Bharti Airtel had also given an electoral bond of Rs 1 crore to JDU.
JDU received electoral bonds worth more than Rs 24 crore
In another filing, JDU gave information about total donations of Rs 24.4 crore through electoral bonds. According to the party, many of the electoral bonds it received were issued from State Bank of India branches located in Hyderabad and Kolkata and some were also issued from SBI branch located in Patna.
Future Gaming Company gave 509 crores to DMK
DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), which is in power in Tamil Nadu, has received donations of Rs 665.5 crore through electoral bonds. Whereas 77 percent of this donation of Rs 509 crore has been received from Future Gaming of lottery king Santiago Martin. According to the Election Commission, Future Gaming has purchased the maximum electoral bonds worth Rs 1368 crore, out of which DMK has encashed 37 percent. Apart from this, Megha Engineer has donated Rs 105 crore, India Cements Rs 14 crore and Sun TV has donated Rs 100 crore electoral bond to DMK. Big names like Megha Engineer, India Cements and Sun TV are among those who donated to DMK through electoral bonds.
BJP received maximum donations
According to the Election Commission, from April 2018 to 2023, BJP has received the highest donation of Rs 6986.5 crore from across the country. There were eight such occasions when BJP received donations through electoral bonds worth Rs 1 billion or more in a single day. TMC has received donations at second place, Congress at third and BRS at fourth.
JDS received a total of Rs 89.75 crore, out of which only Megha Engineering gave Rs 50 crore
Odisha’s ruling party BJD received donations of Rs 944.5 crore. After that DMK received electoral bonds worth Rs 656.5 crore. Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party YSR Congress redeemed bonds worth about Rs 442.8 crore. JDS got bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore. JDS has received Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second largest buyer of electoral bonds.
The new data includes information about the date of bond issue, denomination of the fund, number of bonds and the branch of the issuing State Bank of India (SBI). It also includes the dates of receipt and credit into the bank accounts of the parties.
In fact, during the long hearing regarding electoral bonds in the Supreme Court, information was sought from SBI about the electoral bonds received by all the political parties and orders were given to hand over the complete data to the Election Commission. The court had asked the Election Commission to upload this data on its website.
