There was no record of Adani Group or Reliance Industries – the two major business conglomerates.
The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) of Mamata Banerjee secured the 'second spot', receiving Rs 1,609.50 crore via electoral bonds.
**** Is it surprising, the grand old party the Congress occupied the ---
third spot, collecting Rs 1,421.9 crore through this route.
(If the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit is second in the list as recipient, does it imply Congress is less popular than the Trinamool Congress? )
The highest donor was Future Gaming And Hotel Services with Rs 1,368 crore. The second highest was Megha Engineering And Infrastructure Ltd with Rs 980 crore worth donation.
Future Gaming is reportedly owned by Santiago Martin, a lottery king from South India, Megha Engineering, which builds dams and power projects, is owned by PV Krishna Reddy and PP Reddy.
According to Future's website, Martin started off in the lottery business at the age of 13, where "he had managed to develop and secure a vast marketing network of the buyers and sellers of lotteries all over India."
In the south, the firm runs under Martin Karnataka, while in the north-east, it is known with Martin Sikkim Lottery.
The Election Commission was given a deadline of March 15 to publish the data.
BJP as expected tops the list among recipients in electoral bond encashment with over Rs 6,000 crore.
According to recent data released by the Election Commission, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the top beneficiary of electoral bonds, encashing bonds worth Rs 6,060.5 crore between April 12, 2019, and January 24, 2024. This amount is the highest among all political parties.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also encashed electoral bonds worth more than Rs 500 crore each during the specified period.
Other parties that redeemed electoral bonds include AIADMK, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, JDS, NCP, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party, according to the data.
In a statement, the poll panel said that it has uploaded the data on its website as received from SBI on an "as is where is basis" after the Supreme Court's directions.
It said that the data can be accessed at www.eci.govt.in/candidate-political party.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has filed an application for the modification of SC order in the electoral bonds case, seeking that data submitted to the court be returned to the poll body as the EC has not maintained copies of the same.
In a landmark ruling on February 15, 2024, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients.
According to the list published, top donors to political parties include major corporates such as Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, and Piramal Enterprises.
The list also includes Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma. Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, and Vedanta Ltd also lead the list of big donors to political parties.
Piramal Enterprises Ltd, Muthoot Finance Limited, Pegasus Properties Private Limited, Finolex Cables Ltd, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Edelweiss Housing Finance Ltd, GHCL Ltd, Jindal Poly Films Limited, and ITC Limited are also on the list.
“It may be recalled that in the said matter ECI has consistently and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency, a position reflected in the proceedings of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and noted in the order also,” the ECI said as it published the data on the site.
The first part of the details contains 337 pages detailing the entities that bought electoral bonds and the date of purchase. The second part containing 426 pages provided the details of the political parties, dates and the amount. It cannot be known which company bought whose bonds. The bond numbers have not been provided.
Electoral bond was a mode for Indian political parties to receive funding/donations. The scheme was introduced in 2017-18. It was struck down by the Supreme Court in February.
The State Bank of India issued bonds worth ₹16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the beginning of the scheme in 2018.
"One can't believe that Ambani and Adani group of companies have not contributed to political parties through electoral bonds" -- A Retired Govt servant, now settled in NCR
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