The Election Commission of India on Thursday released the data of Electoral Bonds bought by various entities from the State Bank of India and the recipients of such bonds. The data was published in two sheets, one gives the detail of purchasers of the Electoral Bonds from 12 April 2019 to 11 January 2024, and the other gives the detail of political parties that encashed Electoral Bonds from 12 April 2019 to 24 January 2024.
As anticipated, BJP is the biggest recipient of Electoral bonds, with over ₹6,060 crore, almost half of all donations received by the parties through bonds. The second largest beneficiary was Trinamool Congress with ₹1,610 crore, followed by Congress (₹1,422 crore) and BRS (₹1,215 crore).
All parties in the now collapsed opposition bloc I.N.D.I. Alliance received donations through Electoral Bonds, despite their strong public oppositions to the scheme.
However, the list of donors, or the list of purchasers have proven many of the allegations regarding the scheme false. While it was anticipated by many that Adani Group and Reliance Group will feature prominently in the list, the two behemoths are not even mentioned. Just a day before the publication of the list, Adani Group shares had plummeted, with analysts saying that this was due to panic selling by investors anticipating that the company made significant donations to political parties using electoral bonds.
As per reports, there was panic selling of Adani group stocks due to rumours going around in the market that they are one of the leading contributors to political parties through the purchase of electoral bonds.
However, in the list published by the Election Commission based on the data submitted by the State Bank of India, none of the Adani Group companies bought any Electoral Bonds. This means, although the group may have donated to political parties, they didn’t use the Electoral Bonds for the same.
Another name that is absent from the list is the Reliance Group. Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that all policies of the Modi government is to benefit select people like Adani and Ambani, but it seems Reliance Group also didn’t purchase any Electoral Bonds to make donations to political parties. While it may be alleged that these companies could have use shell companies of proxy companies to purchase bonds, the fact is that list does not contain many such names, and most of the names are of well-known companies, except a few.
However, the list includes several well-known companies, like the Bajaj group, Bharti Airtel, DLF, Jindal Steel, Vedanta etc. But the names of top purchasers of Electoral Bonds are surprising, as they include several relatively lesser-known names.
The top purchaser of electoral bonds was Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited, the company bought a total of whopping 1,368 bonds totalling ₹1,368 crore. The second largest purchaser was Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited with ₹821 crore. The third place was occupied by Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited.
Notably, the lottery company Future Gaming & Hotel Services Private Limited is facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. The agency had attached assets worth ₹409.92 crore of the company and its various sub-distributors in relation to the case originally registered by Kolkata Police. The company is the sole distributor of paper lottery organised by the states of Sikkim and Nagaland that runs the popular ‘Dear Lottery’.
