 "Electoral bonds data: Here's how much the BJP, Congress and TMC received")
After weeks of back and forth between the Supreme Court (SC) and the State Bank of India (SBI), the public lender released the full details of the electoral bonds scheme on March 21. The disclosed information contained the redemption particulars of political parties. It included the serial numbers, encashment dates, party names, the last four digits of account numbers, prefixes, bond numbers, denominations, and pay branch codes.
As per the released data, the total amount encashed via the electoral bonds was Rs 12,145.87 crore. While the BJP’s donor list had nine companies who gave over Rs 100 crore to the party, the Congress and Trinamool Congress had only two each, and two regional parties, BRS and DMK, had one donor each.
Which companies donated to the BJP via electoral bonds?
According to the SBI data, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the biggest beneficiary of its electoral bonds scheme, which the ruling party had introduced in 2019. The richest national party received donations to the tune of around Rs 6,000 crore from various companies, mainly Megha Engineering, Qwik Supply Chain, Vedanta, and Bharti Airtel, among others.
The ruling party received donations of over Rs 100 crore from 9 companies, the highest on the list. While Megha Engineering- a Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm- donated Rs 519 crore, Qwik Supply was the second highest donor with Rs 375 crore. Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, and Madanlal Ltd each gave Rs 226 crore, Rs 183 crore, and Rs 175.5 crore.
Other significant contributors included Birla Carbon India (Rs 105 crore) and lottery firm Future Gaming and Hotel Services (Rs 100 crore), among others.
According to reports, Madanlal Ltd, MKJ Enterprises and Keventers Food Park share the same address in Kolkata. Madanlal Ltd mentions on its official website that it is a part of the MKJ and Keventers Group of companies, both of which have made separate donations to the BJP and other parties.
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How much did Congress benefit from the bonds?
The Indian National Congress fell behind the BJP by quite some margin in reaping the benefits of the bonds scheme. The national party received a total of Rs 1,351 crore. The biggest donor to the party was Vedanta Ltd at Rs 125 crore, while Western UP Power Limited- a Megha Enterprise Group’s subsidiary- gave Rs 110 crore. It is important to note that Megha Engineering was the top contributor to the BJP.
At the third number was MKJ Enterprises with donations worth Rs 91.6 crore. The other notable donations were from Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital, Future Gaming, and Avees Trading & Finance with donations worth Rs 64 crore, Rs 50 crore, and Rs 53 crore.
How did Mamata Banerjee’s TMC fare?
The electoral bonds scheme proved more beneficial for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress than the INC. The party received Rs 1,592 crore through the poll bond donations.
Future Gaming was the biggest donor for TMC, donating Rs 542 crore, the highest individual contribution to a party. At the second spot was Haldia Energy Limited, a flagship of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, with donations worth Rs 281 crore. Other than these, Dhariwal Infra (Rs 90 crore), MKJ Enterprises (Rs 45.9 crore), and Avees Trading & Finance (Rs 45.4 crore) were among other notable donors.
The Supreme Court struck down the Electoral Bonds scheme in February last year. SBI was the only bank authorised to sell and redeem the bonds, which were first issued in March 2018.