The Election Commission on March 21 released data about electoral bonds along with alphanumeric numbers, allowing the lists of donors and the parties they were donating to to be matched.This data was received from the State Bank of India following a Supreme Court directive to this effect.
The data reveal that Hyderabad-based company Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL) donated ₹584 crore to the BJP, the highest amount given by any donor to a single party. This accounted for 9% of the total donations to the BJP, which encashed ₹6,060.5 crore overall, emerging as the top recipient of all electoral bond purchases. The top 18 companies according to the total amount purchased through electoral bonds, donated portions of the bonds to the BJP.
MEIL’s subsidiary, the Western U.P. Power Transmission Company Ltd., has donated ₹110 crore to the Congress, the third largest beneficiary, and ₹80 crore to the BJP. MEIL has also donated ₹195 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the fourth largest beneficiary, and ₹85 crore to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
The highest electoral bond donor overall– lottery bigwig Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR– donated ₹542 crore to the Trinamool Congress, the second largest beneficiary of the scheme. This donation amounted to 33.7% of the total amount it encashed via the electoral bonds route.
In all, the Future Gaming and Hotel Services purchased bonds worth ₹1,368 crore, of which 39.6% went to the Trinamool Congress (₹542 crore), followed by the DMK (₹503 crore), and the YSR Congress Party (₹154 crore). The firm also donated ₹100 crore to the BJP.
Qwik Supply Chain Ltd., 50% of which is owned by three Reliance Group companies, donated ₹375 crore to the BJP ( 6% of the amount encashed by the party) and ₹25 crore to the Shiv Sena. Haldia Energy donated bonds worth ₹281 crore to the Trinamool Congress and ₹81 crore to the BJP.
Meanwhile, Vedanta Ltd. donated ₹229 crore to the BJP, followed by ₹125 crore to the Congress. Vedanta Ltd. was the largest donor of electoral bonds for the Congress, which encashed ₹1,422 crore in total. This is followed by the Western U.P. Power Transmission Company Ltd (₹110 crore) and MKJ Enterprises (₹91.6 crore).
Keventer Food Park Infra Ltd., MKJ Enterprises Ltd., and Madanlal Ltd., which are all registered with the same address in Kolkata and share at least one director in common, jointly donated ₹573 crore. Of this amount 60%, at ₹346 crore, went to the BJP, and 21% (₹121 crore) went to the Congress.
The released data covers details of bonds purchased by donors and encashed by political parties between April 12, 2019 and January 24, 2024. The data released also highlights that several companies which have faced regulatory action over the past five years donated electoral bonds to the BJP in some measure.
As reported previously, Divi’s Labs, Micro Labs, and Kalpataru Projects International were among those who contributed considerable amounts via electoral bonds between 2019 and 2023. For example, Micro Labs bought electoral bonds worth ₹16 crore, donating ₹7 crore to the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, ₹6 crore to the BJP, and ₹3 crore to the Congress, while Divi’s Laboratories Ltd. donated ₹30 crore to the BJP, ₹20 crore to the BRS, and ₹5 crore to the Congress.
These companies were also under the scanner of the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over alleged bad business practices or quality control.
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