An analysis of the electoral bonds scheme shows that the ruling BJP garnered the lion’s share of nearly 55% of the funds till March 2023, while its closest rival Congress got a mere 9.3%. The highest sale of bonds for the whole 30 phases was during the year of the last Lok Sabha polls, in 2019; from April 1 to 20, bonds worth ₹2,256.37 crore were sold.
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The BJP, till March 2023, received ₹6,566.11 crore through EBs, while the Congress got ₹1,123.29 crore. The ruling party got a maximum of ₹2,555 crore in the year 2019-2020 when the last Lok Sabha polls were held, as compared to the Congress’s ₹317.86 crore, according to annual audit reports submitted by the parties which have been made public by the Election Commission.
The audit reports show that the BJP got ₹210 crore in 2017-18 when the electoral bonds scheme was first introduced. In subsequent years, the party got ₹1,450.89 crore (2018-19), ₹2,555 crore (2019-20), ₹22.38 crore (2020-21), ₹1,033.70 crore (2021-22) and ₹1,294.14 crore (2022-23).
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The Congress, on the other hand, began with just ₹5 crore in 2017-18 and got ₹383.26 crore in 2018-19. In the following fiscals, the amount kept decreasing as it got ₹317.86 crore (2019-20), ₹10.07 crore (2020-2021), ₹236.09 crore (2021-2022) and ₹171.01 crore (2022-2023).
During the last fiscal of 2022-23, BJP’s total income stood at ₹2,360 crore, of which nearly ₹1,300 crore came through electoral bonds. In the same year, the Congress saw its total income fall to ₹452 crore, of which ₹171 crore came through electoral bonds.
In the 30 phases of the sale, electoral bonds worth ₹16,518.10 crore were sold; of this, ₹4,794.68 crore or 29.02% were sold during the four phases between January and May 2019 before the Lok Sabha elections that year.
The highest sale for the whole 30 phases was also during the 2019 April 1-20 period, when bonds worth ₹2,256.37 crore were sold, an analysis of the data given to RTI activists shows.