Fresh electoral bonds data: Lottery co Martin Group, top donor for DMK
BJP received most funds, followed by Trinamool Congress, Congress, BRS, JDS and YSRCP
Top purchaser of electoral bonds Future Gaming and Hotel Services donated Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu's ruling party DMK, the Election Commission data showed on Sunday (March 17).
This revelation was made after the poll panel released further information regarding the electoral bonds, including information on the amount redeemed per political party.
The BJP received the maximum funds through these bonds at Rs 6,986.5 crore since they were introduced in 2018 with maximum of Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20, followed by West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress (Rs 1,397 crore), Congress (Rs 1,334 crore) and BRS (Rs 1,322 crore).
Odisha's ruling party BJD was the fifth largest recipient at Rs 944.5 crore followed by DMK at Rs 656.5 crore and Andhra Pradesh's ruling party YSR Congress redeemed bonds worth nearly Rs 442.8 crore.
The JD(S) received bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second largest purchaser of electoral bonds.
Future Gaming of lottery king Santiago Martin was the biggest purchaser of electoral bonds at Rs 1,368 crore, of which nearly 37 per cent went to the DMK.
DMK’s donors
Other major donors of the DMK included Megha Engineering Rs 105 crore, India Cements Rs 14 crore and Sun TV Rs 100 crore.
The DMK was among the few political parties to disclose the identity of the donors, while major parties such as the BJP, Congress, TMC and AAP did not disclose these details to the Election Commission, which has now made public those filing as per a Supreme Court order.
The TDP redeemed bonds worth Rs 181.35 crore, Shiv Sena Rs 60.4 crore, RJD 56 crore, Samajwadi Party got Rs 14.05 crore via electoral bonds, Akali Dal Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore, National Conference Rs 50 lakh.
The CPI(M) has declared that it will not receive funds through electoral bonds, while filings made by the AIMIM and BSP showed nil receipts.
Fresh data after SC nudge
The ECI has uploaded the data on its website, which it received in digitised form from the registry of the Supreme Court. “Political parties had filed data on electoral bonds in sealed covers as directed by the Supreme Court's interim order dated April 12, 2019,” the poll panel said in a statement.
The ECI released the data a day after it announced the dates for the Lok Sabha elections to be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. The latest documents released by the ECI only show raw data of the date of the bonds, denominations, number of bonds, issuing State Bank of India (SBI) branch, date of receipt, and date of credit. It does not disclose the unique numbers of the bonds.
“Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” EC said.
Earlier, the Election Commission had on Thursday released the first list of entities and individuals who purchased electoral bonds to make political donations. Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited, which is run by Santiago Martin, commonly known as “Lottery King”, emerged as the largest donor. The firm has donated ₹1368 crore between 2019 and 2024.
