Electoral Bonds Data: These Are The Largest Donors To Political Parties

The latest set of disclosures made on the Election Commission of India website on Thursday, have finally allowed donors and political parties to be directly linked.

The data, which was released by State Bank of India under Supreme Court's direct orders, revealed the amount of bonds purchased by each donor and such bonds redeemed by political parties. The two lists, which were submitted separately, were matched using the alphanumeric code linked to each bond.

To be sure, the data on the ECI website does not reveal the dates on which the bonds were encashed by a particular party, but it matches the donors and the political parties that encashed the funds—a move that identifies the top sources of political funding for India's biggest parties.

Among the top nine parties, bonds worth Rs 11,542 crore were redeemed, according to the data released. While Bharatiya Janata Party accounted for Rs 5,594 crore worth of bonds, Trinamool Congress, Indian National Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi accounted for a bulk of the rest.

Future Gaming and Hotel Services Ltd., Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd., Qwik Supply Chain Pvt., Vedanta Ltd. and Haldia Energy Ltd. are five of the largest donors in the list released.

At the top of the list of BJP's largest donors is Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, which donated Rs 584 crore. The company's founder, P Pitchi Reddy, is among India’s wealthiest with a net worth of Rs 37,300 crore, according to ‘360 One Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2023’. In fact, his net worth has grown by Rs 24,700 crore in the last one year alone.

Among the other large donors are Qwik Supply Chain, Vedanta, Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Madanlal Ltd.

The All India Trinamool Congress became the second largest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme and redeemed bonds worth Rs 1,592.5 crore. Future Gaming was its largest donor, with bonds worth Rs 542 crore.

Among other large donors are Haldia Energy, Dhariwal Infrastructure Ltd., IFB Agro Industries Ltd., Chennai Green Woods Pvt. and PCBL.

The INC was the third largest beneficiary of electoral bonds, with redemptions worth Rs 1,351 crore. Its largest donor included Western UP Power Transmission, with bonds worth Rs 110 crore.

Western UP Power Transmission is part of Megha Engineering and is building two key transmission lines in Uttar Pradesh.

Among other large donors were Vedanta, MKJ Enterprises Ltd., Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital and Avees Trading and Finance Pvt.

The BRS, led by former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, encashed bonds worth Rs 1,191 crore, according to data available on the ECI website. Its largest donor is Megha Engineering, which bought bonds worth Rs 195 crore.

Other large donors include Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital, Chennai Green Woods, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. and Hetero Drugs Ltd.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's BJD raised Rs 776 crore through electoral bonds. Its largest donor was Essel Mining and Industries Ltd., with bonds worth Rs 175 crore.

Among other large donors are Jindal Group, Rashmi Group and Utkal Group.

Tamil Nadu's DMK raised Rs 632 crore through the electoral bonds scheme. Future Gaming, which belongs to India's lottery king Santiago Martin, donated Rs 503 crore to the party and is its largest donor.

Among other donors are Megha Engineering, Westwell Gases Pvt. and Askus Logistics Pvt.

Apart from these parties, the YRS Congress raised Rs 154 crore from Future Gaming, Rs 37 crore from Megha Engineering, and Rs 34 crore from Ostro Group.

SBI was the only bank authorised to sell and redeem electoral bonds, which were first issued in March 2018. Last month, the top court struck down the electoral bond scheme in a unanimous ruling, calling it unconstitutional.