EC releases electoral bonds data, billionaire tycoons to lesser-known entities among buyers

PTI, Mar 14, 2024, 9:07 PM IST

The list of entities which purchased electoral bonds to make political donations is a veritable Who’s Who of the corporate world. But possibly the biggest donor, according to the list released Thursday by the Election Commission, is a little known lottery company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services.

The better known names include steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, DLF, PVR, Birlas, Bajajs, Jindals, Spicejet, IndiGo and the Goenkas.

Future Gaming and Hotel Services purchased possibly the highest amount of bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore, followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd at Rs 966 crore. Future Gaming was probed by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2022.

While it is already known that the ruling BJP received the highest amount of donation of over Rs 6,000 crore followed by the Congress party, the data dump only disclosed the amount donated by each entity or individual. It does not say who donated to which party.

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 of several large infrastructure projects, bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore.

While most of the bonds have been issued in the name of political parties, the donations made to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were made in the name of ‘President, All India Congress Committee’ and ‘Adyaksha Samajvadi Party’.

Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India, which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, had shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.

The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm of March 15 to upload the data on its website.

The EC released the details on ‘Disclosure of Electoral Bonds Submitted by SBI’ in two parts — one listing the buyers and the other listing the beneficiary parties — on its website a day before the court-mandated deadline.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the SBI said a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.

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.

The parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JD-S, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, the Samajwadi Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, BJD, Goa Forward Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, JMM, Sikkim Democratic Front, and the Jana Sena Party.

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.

Besides Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, individuals who donated through electoral bonds included Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Varun Gupta, B K Goenka, Jainendra Shah and one person going by only first name of Monika.

Ghaziabad-based Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital purchased 162 bonds, mostly of Rs 1 crore each.

Bajaj Auto bought bonds worth Rs 18 crore, Bajaj Finance Rs 20 crore, three IndiGo firms Rs 36 crore, Spicejet Rs 65 lakh, and Rahul Bhatia of IndiGo bought bonds worth Rs 20 crore.

Mumbai-based Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd bought bonds worth Rs 410 crore and Haldia Energy Rs 377 crore.

Soon after the Election Commission released the data, the opposition Congress said there was a discrepancy in the numbers of entries in donor and recipient files — 18,871 against 20,421. It also asked why the data shared pertained to a period from April 2019 even though the scheme for anonymous political funding was introduced in 2017.

The TDP and the Jana Sena, the ruling NDA constituents from Andhra Pradesh, downplayed the issue of their names featuring in the list of parties that have encashed electoral bonds.

Jana Sena spokesperson Ajay Kumar said, ”We have people who will give money to us also. And electoral bond was a legal thing.” According to an earlier report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore have been sold from March 2018 to January 2024.

The BJP received the highest contributions through the electoral bonds amounting to Rs 6,566 crore or 54.77 per cent, followed by the Congress with Rs 1,123 crore or 9.37 per cent, Trinamool Congress Rs 1,092 crore or 9.11 per cent, it had said.