SC reserved bonds verdict, but money flowed and BJP cornered over 57%

After the Supreme Court reserved its verdict on the constitutionality of the electoral bonds scheme in November last year, the Narendra Modi government announced the sale of bonds worth around Rs 1,577 crore, suggests data collated by transparency campaigner Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired).

About 57.3 percent of these, or bonds worth over Rs 905 crore, were encashed by the BJP, according to the data published by the Election Commission of India.

All the bonds sold in the 29th and 30th sale cycles – from November 6 to November 20 and January 2 to January 11, respectively – were encashed by 13 parties, including the BJP, from November 9 to December 4 last year and January 8 to January 24 this year. 

In a descending order of donations received during this period, these parties include the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Telugu Desam Party, YSR Congress Party, Biju Janata Dal, Shiv Sena, DMK, the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party, RJD, BRS, Sikkim Democratic Front, and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha.

While the Congress received Rs 215.4 crore, the Trinamool Congress encashed bonds worth Rs 137.2 crore. This was followed by the TDP at Rs 128.2 crore, and YSR with Rs 61 crore.

The BJD got Rs 30 crore, the Shiv Sena got Rs 25 crore, the DMK Rs 20 crore, the Jana Sena Rs 17 crore, the RJD Rs 15 crore, the BRS Rs 13.5 crore, the Sikkim Democratic Front Rs 5.5 crore, and the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Rs 3 crore.

The top donors for the some of the top recipients 

Behind the Rs 905 crore received by the BJP, the biggest donors were Bharti Airtel (Rs 143 crore), Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited (Rs 80 crore), Birla Carbon India (Rs 50 crore), Qwik Supply Chain Private LImited (Rs 50 crore), Rungta Sons (Rs 50 crore), Sasmal Infrastructure Private Limited (Rs 50 crore), SEPC Power Pvt Ltd (Rs 50 crore), Utkal Alumina (Rs 40 crore), and Safal Goyal Realty (Rs 35 crore).

This was followed by Rs 25 crore each by Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Aurobindo Pharma, Prathmesh Construction, and Torrent Power.

Meanwhile, among the biggest donors of the Congress were Sasmal Infrastructure Private Limited (Rs 39 crore), SEPC Power Pvt Ltd (Rs 30 crore), Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited (Rs 20 crore), Aparna Farms and Estates (Rs 15 crore), Avees Trading Finance (Rs 15 crore), Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (Rs 11 crore), Sri Siddharth Infratech and Services (Rs 10 crore), Wonder Cement (Rs 10 crore), MKJ Enterprises (Rs 5 crore), and My Home Infrastructures (Rs 4.5 crore).

The Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, received the bulk of its electoral bond donations during this period from Future Gaming (Rs 60 crore), Haldia Energy Limited (Rs 35 crore), Asish Finance Pvt Ltd (Rs 5 crore), Abhinandan Stockbroking (Rs 2 crore), Sandeep Auto Lines (Rs 3.5 crore), one Mahabir Banka (Rs 3 crore), Synergy Dealcom (Rs 3 crore), one Vikas Parasrampuria (Rs 3 crore), and one Prashant Kumar Jaiswal (Rs 2.8 crore). 

Meanwhile, among the top donors for the TDP were Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited (Rs 20 crore), Shirdi Sai Electricals (Rs 40 crore), and Natco Pharma (Rs 13 crore).

The BJP has received over Rs 8,251 crore, or nearly half of the total Rs 16,518 crore donated through electoral bonds since 2018, according to data uploaded by EC.

This report is part of a collaborative project involving three news organisations – Newslaundry, Scroll, The News Minute – and independent journalists.

Project Electoral Bond includes Aban Usmani, Anand Mangnale, Anisha Sheth, Anjana Meenakshi, Ayush Tiwari, Azeefa Fathima, Basant Kumar, Binu Karunakaran, Dhanya Rajendran, Divya Aslesha, Jayashree Arunachalam, Jisha Surya, Joyal George, M Rajshekhar, Maria Teresa Raju, Nandini Chandrashekar, Neel Madhav, Nikita Saxena, Parth MN, Pooja Prasanna, Prajwal Bhat, Prateek Goyal, Pratyush Deep, Ragamalika Karthikeyan, Raman Kirpal, Ravi Nair, Rokibuz Zaman, Sachi Hegde, Safwat Zargar, Shabbir Ahmed, Shivnarayan Rajpurohit, Siddharth Mishra, Sumedha Mittal, Supriya Sharma, Tabassum Barnagarwala and Vaishnavi Rathore.