The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday uploaded the complete electoral bond data given to it by the State Bank of India on orders of the Supreme Court. The data includes bond numbers that can link donors with the political parties they contributed to.
As per latest data, Trinamool Congress got at least Rs 540 crore worth electoral bonds from Future Gaming, making it the biggest beneficiary of donations made by ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin, who also donated to the DMK, the YSR Congress, the BJP and the Congress.
Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and Sikkim Democratic Front also got some funds from the biggest purchaser of the electoral bonds, which was started by the Centre Government in March 2018 and scrapped last month.
While a plethora of well-known corporates bought the bonds when the scheme was alive, the biggest donor to political parties was Future Gaming, which purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore.
Besides Trinamool Congress, Future Gaming gave Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu’s ruling party DMK, nearly Rs 160 crore to Andhra Pradesh’s YSR Congress Party, Rs 100 crore to BJP and Rs 50 crore to Congress. The two parties of Sikkim, one of the few States where lottery is legal, together got less than Rs 10 crore from Future Gaming.
The second-biggest donor is known to be Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which has given Rs 966 crore to various parties including BJP, Bharat Rashtra Samiti and DMK.
Qwik Supply, the third largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds, bought Rs 410 crore bonds between 2021-22 and 2023-24, and gave Rs 395 crore to the BJP and Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena.
Qwik Supply Chain Private Ltd, a little-known company with a registered address at Navi Mumbai’s Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) and having links to Reliance Industries, is described as a manufacturer of warehouses and storage units, and gave no money to any other political party.
The BJP was the major receiver of funds from big corporate groups like Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Muthoot, Bajaj Auto, Jindal group and TVS Motor.
Electoral bond purchases and donations by Qwik Supply accounted for Rs 1,368 crore of Future Gaming and Hotel Services-another little-known lottery company-and Rs 966 crore of Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infra.
Qwik Supply bought electoral bonds worth Rs 360 crore in 2021-22 to donate to political parties. Despite this, its net profit for the same year was only Rs 21.72 crore. It purchased an additional Rs 50 crore worth of bonds in 2023-24.
Honeywell Properties Private Ltd purchased bonds worth Rs 30 crore on April 8, 2021, and allocated all of them to the BJP. Two separate lists of donors and recipients were published by the poll panel on its website after receiving the details from the State Bank of India earlier in the day, following a Supreme Court order.
The Election Commission said it uploaded the electoral bond data on its website as received from SBI, on an ‘as is where is’ basis.
The new details show the name of the purchaser of the bond, its denomination and specific number, the name of the party that encashed it, the last four digits of the bank account number of political parties that redeemed the bond and the denomination and unique number of the bond encashed.
What was missing were the hidden alphanumeric codes on bonds that can help match donors with parties -- a section that has caused huge concern about the end to the anonymity promised by the Government.
The codes can be seen only under ultraviolet light.
Details from earlier lists have revealed Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd, Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd, Vedanta and Bharti Group among the top donors. The top recipient was the BJP, followed by Trinamool Congress, Congress and the BRS.
It also appeared that some South parties, including DMK, AIADMK and JD(S) have sent information about the donors to the Election Commission.
The bank had earlier given two lists to the Commission, which were released on the poll panel’s website on March 14. They contained information on donors, the bonds purchased and their dates, political parties and the bonds they encashed.
Earlier, the State Bank of India told the Supreme Court that it has provided the Election Commission all details of electoral bonds, including the unique bond number that would reveal the link between the purchaser and the recipient political party.
In a compliance affidavit filed ahead of the 5 pm. Deadline set by the apex court, the SBI chairman said the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties which redeemed the bonds have not been made public as it may compromise the security of these accounts.
The SBI also said KYC details of purchasers have also not being made public for security reasons. It said complete bank account numbers and KYC details were not necessary for “identifying the political parties”.
The affidavit said the SBI has revealed information which will show the name of the purchaser of the bond, its denomination and specific number, the name of the party that encashed it, the last four digits of the bank account number of political parties that redeemed the bond and the denomination and unique number of the bond encashed.
