Janata Dal (United) founder and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
The Janata Dal (United), or JDU, informed the Election Commission that it did not know the identity of the donor or donors who gave the party electoral bonds valued at ₹10 crore. It claimed that in April 2019, “someone” gave the party a sealed envelope containing ten bonds, each worth ₹1 crore, which it cashed in a matter of days.
The political parties’ sealed disclosures regarding the electoral bonds they redeemed between March 2018 and November 2023 were made public by the poll panel on Sunday. The party led by Nitish Kumar claimed to have received donations totaling ₹13 crore through electoral bonds in its response, which was turned in on May 30, 2019. It did, however, add that it lacked information about the donor or donors who contributed bonds totaling ₹10 crore.
“Somebody came to our office on 03-04-2019 at Patna and handed over a sealed envelope and when it was opened, we found a bunch containing 10 electoral bonds of ₹1 crore each. Accordingly, as per Gazette Notification of the Govt of India, we opened an account in SBI main branch, Patna and deposited it, which was credited to our party account on 10-04-2019. In view of this situation, we are unable to provide any more details about the donors,” the JD(U) said in its disclosure.
The JD(U) stated that it was given the remaining ₹3 crore in three bonds: one ₹1 crore from Bharti Airtel and two ₹1 crore bonds from Shree Cement Limited, which is based in Ajmer.
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