In compliance with the directives of the Supreme Court, the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest public bank, has released a new dataset of electoral bonds detailing the parties and the bonds they encashed on Thursday.
Notably, while the data on the Election Commission of India (ECI) website does not specify the dates on which the bonds were encashed by each party, it does align donors with the political parties that received the funds. This move aims to identify the primary sources of political funding for India's major parties.
On Thursday, the poll body published two distinct lists: one detailing donors and the other recipients of donations made between April 2019 and January 2024. These lists include alphanumeric numbers associated with the electoral bonds, facilitating the identification of both the donor and recipient.
Future Gaming And Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd.
Santiago Martin, known as the 'Lottery king,' and his company, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd., emerge as the largest contributor of funds through electoral bonds between April 2019 and January 2022, totaling Rs 1,368 crore. Surprisingly, only a fraction of this sum, Rs 100 crore, was donated to the ruling BJP party.
Fresh data published on the Election Commission of India's website reveals that among the recipients of these donations, the ruling Trinamool Congress Party of West Bengal received the highest amount, totaling Rs 542 crore. Following closely behind, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu received the second-largest donation of Rs 503 crore. Additionally, significant contributions were made to the YSR Congress Party, amounting to Rs 154 crore, and the Congress party, which received Rs 50 crore. A smaller portion of the funds, Rs 8 crore, was allocated to Sikkim-based parties.
Megha Engineering And Infrastructures Limited
Despite being the second-largest donor to political parties through electoral bonds between April 12, 2019, and January 11, 2024, new data reveals that Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MIEL) is the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) largest contributor. The chairman of the Telangana-based company, Pamireddy Pichi Reddy, and his nephew P.V. Krishna Reddy collectively donated Rs 966 crore.
According to the latest data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday, the BJP received the majority share of this contribution, totaling Rs 584 crore. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, led by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao, emerged as the second-largest beneficiary, receiving Rs 195 crore. Additionally, the YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh received Rs 37 crore, while Tamil Nadu's ruling party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, got Rs 85 crore.
MIEL also extended contributions to Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), the ruling party in Bihar, amounting to Rs 10 crore.
While MIEL donated to opposition parties as well, the share of electoral bonds allocated to them was relatively minor. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh received Rs 28 crore, the Congress got Rs 18 crore, and the Janata Dal (Secular) received Rs 5 crore. Furthermore, the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party received Rs 4 crore from MIEL.
Vedanta
Data released by the State Bank of India on March 21, complete with unique bond numbers and their encashment dates, discloses that mining behemoth Vedanta Limited contributed electoral bonds amounting to Rs 250.15 crore to the BJP. Notably, more than half of all electoral bonds purchased by Vedanta, totaling Rs 400.65 crore, were directed towards the BJP.
The BJP emerged as the primary beneficiary of Vedanta's electoral bond donations, followed by the Congress, which received Rs 125 crore, the Biju Janata Dal with Rs 40 crore, and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha with Rs 5 crore. The All India Trinamool Congress received a minimal sum of Rs 0.3 crore in electoral bonds from Vedanta.