Election Commission Releases Second List Of Electoral Bonds Data As Directed By Supreme Court

Following a directive from the Supreme Court to make the data public, the Election Commission of India released data on electoral bonds that it had received from SBI in sealed covers. It is thought that these particulars relate to the time frame preceding April 12, 2019.

The election commission’s data revealed that Future Gaming and Hotel Services, the top buyer of electoral bonds, gave ₹509 crore to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, via the now-scrapped payment mode. On the other hand, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre received the maximum money through these bonds since they were introduced in 2018.

The information is included in the data dump that the Election Commission released on the orders of the Supreme Court, which includes information on 523 recognized and unrecognized political parties. This came after another dataset that the poll panel released the previous week, which was based on data that the State Bank of India (SBI), the only bank permitted to sell and redeem electoral bonds, had provided.

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Surveillance by the Enforcement Directorate revealed that Future Gaming, connected to Santiago Martin, was responsible for more than 77% of the ₹656.5 crore electoral bond proceeds revealed by the DMK.

The recipients of the remaining ₹859 crore bonds that Future Gaming acquired are still unknown since the majority of political parties do not provide complete donor information.

With ₹6,986.5 crore received since the introduction of electoral bonds in 2018, the BJP is the largest recipient of funds.

According to the most recent data from the poll commission, the West Bengal Trinamool Congress comes in second with ₹1,397 crore, followed by the Congress with ₹1,334 crore and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi with ₹1,322 crore.

With ₹944.5 crore, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Odisha comes in fifth place. The DMK comes in second with ₹656.5 crore, while the YSR Congress of Andhra Pradesh comes in third with almost ₹442.8 crore.

Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party revealed receipt of ₹10.84 crore in donations overall, which included 10 bonds valued at ₹10 crore that were sent “by post” and received anonymously.

Major parties like the BJP, Congress, and TMC have not fully disclosed this information to the EC, which is now made public per a Supreme Court directive, despite the DMK disclosing donor identities.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) redeemed bonds worth ₹181.35 crore, while Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), ₹56 crore, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, ₹15.5 crore, ₹14.05 crore, Akali Dal, ₹7.26 crore, AIADMK, ₹6.05 crore, National Conference (NC) ₹50 lakh from the Bharti Group, and Sikkim Democratic Front ₹50 lakh were among the bonds redeemed.

AAP did not give a total amount donated; however, SBI’s records show that it was given ₹65.45 crore. The total amount received by AAP is ₹69 crore after deducting an additional ₹3.55 crore that was received after filing with the EC.

Scan copies of political parties’ hundreds of pages of disclosures are included in the most recent data set made public by the European Commission