Electoral bond disclosures: Small, unrecognised parties reap benefits

Most unrecognized parties had disclosed their share of electoral bonds received as 'nil', as per the electoral bonds disclosure in digitised form on 17 March 2024

Smaller and unrecognised parties have also been the beneficiaries of electoral bonds by major donors.

The second-largest electoral bond donor, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, has invested in the bonds of unrecognised parties.

Western UP Power Transmission Company — which is among the top-10 electoral bond donors — also contributed to electoral bonds along with Natco Pharma.

All the donations have gone to the Telangana-based JanaSena Party, the only one in the ‘unrecognised party’ category to receive funds through electoral bonds. 

Unrecognised parties are those that are new or gather too few votes to have a reserved symbol.

They did not get any donations through electoral bonds from 2019 to 2021 but have since seen an uptick because of the JanaSena donations.  

Western UP Power, a non-government company incorporated on September 11, 2009, contributed bonds worth Rs 10 crore.

All the donations were in 2024. Registered in Ghaziabad, it is involved in the production and distribution of electricity.

The company has an authorised capital of Rs 1,350 crore, and a paid-up capital of Rs 735 crore, according to the ministry of corporate affairs records, accessed through tracker Zauba Technologies (chart 1).

 The second highest purchases were by Natco Pharma, which donated Rs 5 crore of the total donations to JanaSena.

The donations were made in 2024. Natco Pharma, a listed company, is a research and development (R&D) focused pharmaceutical firm.

Megha Engineering, which purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 966 crore, contributed Rs 2 crore to unregistered parties in 2022, and another Rs 2 crore in 2023.

JanaSena is in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana. It is set to contest both the state and the parliamentary elections.

Most unrecognised parties had disclosed their share of electoral bonds as ‘nil’, according to the electoral bonds disclosure in digitised form on March 17.

The Supreme Court had required the disclosures as part of its hearing on electoral bonds. It had ruled the scheme invalid in February. It noted that the scheme effectively removes the limit on corporate bond donations that had been in place earlier.

The data on electoral bonds, identification numbers connecting the bonds to the parties and other details have subsequently been released in phases by the Election Commission.

The latest release of identification numbers was done on Thursday.

Some parties had earlier disclosed their donors to the apex court.