The Election Commission of India on Thursday published electoral bonds data, received from the SBI, on its official website in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court.
The data as received from SBI can be accessed at this URL: https://eci.gov.in/candidate-politicalparty
The Supreme Court is set to hear a plea on Friday by the ECI seeking modification/clarification of its 11th March order. The poll body also sought the release of documents submitted by the ECI before the top court in sealed covers.
In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.
The State Bank of India (SBI) has told the Supreme Court that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased by political parties between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed.
In a compliance affidavit filed in the apex court, the SBI said as per the court’s direction, it has made available the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India before the close of business hours on March 12. It said details, including date of purchase of each electoral bonds, names of the purchaser and the denomination of the bonds purchased have been furnished.
The affidavit, filed by SBI’s chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, said the bank has also furnished to the EC details like date of encashment of the electoral bonds, the names of political parties which received the contributions and the denominations of the bonds.
“A total number of 22,217 bonds were purchased during the period April 1, 2019 till February 15, 2024. At the time of collating the information for the ECI, the details were segregated as below…,” it said.
The affidavit said between April 1, 2019 to April 11, 2019, a total of 3,346 electoral bonds were purchased and 1,609 redeemed.
Vedanta, Airtel Among Top 50 Donors
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Future Gaming, which was probed by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2022, bought electoral bonds worth over Rs 1,350 crore under two different sets of companies. Among the known corporates, Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd bought Rs 398 crore worth of bonds, while Sunil Mittal’s three companies together purchased a total of Rs 246 crore worth of bonds.
Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal bought Rs 35 crore worth of bonds in his individual capacity. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which has bagged contracts for several large infrastructure projects, bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore.
According to the data uploaded by the poll panel, the buyers of electoral bonds included Spicejet, IndiGo, Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd., Apollo Tyres, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wines, Welspun, Sun Pharma, Vardhman Textiles, Jindal Group, Phillips Carbon Black Limited, CEAT tyres, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, ITC, Kaypee Enterprises, Cipla, and Ultratech Cement.
(With PTI inputs)
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