The Election Commission of India has disclosed the widely anticipated list of purchasers of electoral bonds between April 2019 and February 2024 as per the data provided by the State Bank of India. The Supreme Court of India had earlier directed ECI to disclose the details by March 13.
"It may be recalled that in the said matter, ECI has consistently and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency, a position reflected in the proceedings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and noted in the order also," ECI says in a statement.
As per the data disclosed by SBI, the top 10 companies/entities bought electoral bonds worth ₹4,200 crore. Amongst this, Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR purchased the highest number of electoral bonds for ₹1,368 crore. The Tamil Nadu-based company was founded in 1991 by Santiago Martin, also known as the "Lottery King" of India. Future Gaming, which primarily started operations in Tamil Nadu, later expanded the business to Kerala and Karnataka, following the ban on lottery in the state.
This was followed by Telangana-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, an industrial conglomerate founded by Pamireddy Pitchi Reddy, which purchased electoral bonds worth ₹966 crore. The Mumbai-based Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, is the third-largest contributor. The company purchased electoral bonds worth ₹410 crore between January 5, 2022 and November 17, 2023.
Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta has become the fourth-largest contributor. The mineral-to-mining conglomerate bought electoral bonds worth ₹400 crore between April 16, 2019 and November 9, 2023.
Aditya Birla Group-led Essel Mining purchased electoral bonds worth ₹224 crore between April 12, 2019 and July 1, 2022. Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd purchased electoral bonds worth ₹195 crore between April 16, 2019 and May 8, 2019. This was followed by West Bengal-based Madanlal Ltd, which purchased electoral bonds worth ₹185 crore between May 8, 2019 and May 10, 2019.
The State Bank of India had earlier this week informed the Supreme Court that 22,217 bonds were purchased and 22,030 bonds were redeemed by political parties between April 2019 and February 2024.
Notably, as per the data, the BJP received the highest number of funding of more than ₹6,061 crore through electoral bonds, followed by the Indian National Congress which received ₹1,422 crore via electoral bonds funds. Trinamool Congress received ₹1,610 crore in funding via electoral bonds.
On March 15, the Supreme Court also directed the country’s largest public sector lender to share unique alpha-numeric numbers on electoral bonds.
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